Tour of Flanders: Latest race updates as Pogacar and Van der Poel do battle in Belgium

Telegraph

06-04-2025

The second Monument one-day race of the year is here, the Tour of Flanders. It is set to be a duel between defending champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). What happens when an immoveable object comes up against an unstoppable force? We will know in about six hours' time.
Van der Poel is the defending champion and looked in fearsome form as he rode everyone off his wheel to win the E3 Saxo Classic midweek. He is punchy, durable and fast in a sprint, as he also showed when he beat Pogacar at Milan-Sanremo a few weeks ago in the latest juicy battle between these stars.
Pogacar is the dominant force in professional cycling at the moment, able to challenge in any race, flat, hilly or mountainous. It will favour the reigning world champion to have his team-mates make the race as fast and hard as possible; the harder, the better for him. If he can get rid of three-time winner Van der Poel and company, as he has done so often in previous seasons, he will probably win this. Easier said than done.
There are in-form outsiders like Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike). British hopes rest on Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious), who has finished in the top-ten twice before her,e and young Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers). They'll do very well to contend; it looks like a two-man tussle.
Anyone who says Belgium is flat has never ridden the Tour of Flanders. Over 269 kilometres, the Ronde van Vlaanderen (to use its local name) heads south-east from the start in Brugge into the Flemish Ardennes and its proliferation of punchy, cobbled climbs (known as bergs), finishing in Oudenaarde.
There are 16 of those blighters on the route, but the race will likely be decided in the last 50km, with the wickedly-steep Koppenberg whittling the lead pack down befere the repetition of the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg, with sections at 20 percent gradient, to finish off the race and its competitors.
This is like Grand National day meets Glastonbury in Belgium, a sporting event, a riotous party and cultural mainstay in one, with approximately a million Belgians cheering on the riders roadside. Many of them no doubt combining two of Belgium's favourite national pasttimes: cycling and beer.