Tadej Pogacar prevails among the favorites to win the Tour of Flanders
the slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) has been proclaimed champion of the Tour of Flanders this Sunday after winning the pulse to Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) escaping with 18 kilometers to go and crossing the finish line alone after completing a 273.4 kilometer route between Bruges and oudenaarde.
Pogacar, which in total accumulates 56 wins as a professionalhe exhibited himself in Flanders to reach the finish line in Oudenaarde first and alone, ahead of the three-time winner of this legendary race, Van de Poel, who finished second alone and was unable to defend the crown won in 2022. He completed the podium on Danish Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).
The race began to pick up with a hundred kilometers to go with a ten runners attack who came to have three minute margin over the group.
But Pogacar refused to give up winning the race and launched an attack in search of a comeback. After beating the last of the outstanding riders, Mads Pedersen, the Slovenian set a hellish pace, at the pace of a time trial, until he reached the finish line alone and against the wind.
Van der Poel chased Pogacar with all his might, but was only able to finish second, 16 seconds behind the leader. Pedersen took the third step of the podium, 1:12 minutes from the winner, after beating the Belgian from Jumbo-Visma in the sprint wout van aert.
Tadej Pogacar is the third rider to win both the Tour de France and the Tour of Flanders and thus joins names like Eddy Merckx and Louison Bobet in the list of winners of this legendary race.
CLASSIFICATION
1.- POGACAR Tadej (UAE) 6:12:07
2.- VAN DER POEL Mathieu (Alpecin) +0:16
3.- PEDERSEN Mads (Trek) +1:12
4.- VAN AERT Wout (Jumbo) mt
5.- POWLESS Neilson (EF) mt
6.- KÜNG Stefan (Groupama) mt
7.- ASGREEN Kasper (Soudal) mt
8.- WRIGHT Fred (Bahrain) mt
9.- JORGENSON Matteo (Movistar) +1:19
10.- TRENTIN Matteo (UAE) +2:49
Source: Eitb
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