Mathieu van der Poel's third victory in the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday was not a demolition. Not only was he nearly caught in the final kilometre by a strong chasing group, but his gap was never massive, not growing over 30 seconds for a long time after his earliest attack. Several times during the race, the Dutchman looked catchable.
First following Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) on the Taaienberg and then going through and past the next group to chase solo towards the head of the race, Van der Poel was strong but not unstoppable.
His gap did not balloon and keep going out, as we might see with a Tadej Pogačar solo raid. In fact, with still 50km to go, he was not yet in the lead and hovering only 30 seconds ahead of a group containing riders like Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) and their teammates.
Even in the finale, as the four chasers – who attacked out of the hesitant larger group – narrowly failed to catch Van der Poel, the remnants of the peloton were closing in fast but not fast enough, eventually finishing just 24 seconds down on the winner.
This should have been a closeable gap at several different moments, especially when so many teams had numbers, and at the point when Van der Poel still had work to do to catch the early break, on his own. But the main group didn't close it. Why?
There were different takes at the finish line in Harelbeke, with one DS saying "there is no time any more to gamble" whilst a rival director insisted that "sometimes it's a gamble, but we made our choice".
It seems, as it often is, that it was a matter of disagreement over responsibility, and indeed the best way to approach things: launch smaller attacks, or work together to chase down Van der Poel. The latter seems, on paper, like it could have worked, but the teams did not want to help each other.
The team with the most numbers – and a strong rider in Van Dijke – initially opted for a more aggressive approach, sending a lone Jan Tratnik in pursuit of Van der Poel, which failed. They then missed the four-rider chase group that broke away from the main group, and only then committed to chasing as a team.
"At a certain moment, it was up to us to start pulling, because we were there with four, five guys. You had Mathieu in front, and then you had the four chasers, and then you had a group of 35, 40 riders, and we were there with four riders. So in the end you take responsibility," Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sports director Sven Vanthourenhout told Cyclingnews.
"You know, OK, maybe you close it, and maybe you don't, but you have to do something in that moment. It was up to us and Lidl-Trek – I expected a bit more support from them – and then also Soudal-QuickStep, these were the missing teams who were not in front, but it is what it is."
The Belgian DS did not lament his riders efforts, who he said did all they could in the chase, but couldn't do a lot more with the collaboration they did – or didn't – get.
"The guys pulled on the limit, but they didn't close it. Maybe if we had more help... The guys from Groupama also did a good support but in that moment, there is no time any more to gamble. In that moment, the four or five strongest guys from the race are in front and then you have to pull."
As Vanthourenhout pointed out, a lot of eyes certainly were on Lidl-Trek, who had Mads Pedersen and Mathias Vacek in the main group, with Edward Theuns also briefly there, caught from the early breakaway. But Pedersen and Vacek tried their own digs, rather than committing one rider to try and chase.
"We took our responsibility earlier in the race," Lidl DS Michael Schär asserted to Cyclingnews. "Then we were quite alone and other teams took their responsibility and at one point it looked like it would come back, so sometimes it's a gamble, but we made our choice and that's how it is. Sometimes you come back and sometimes you don't."
Though often looked at as protagonists in the Classics, Schär was pragmatic in his reasoning for the team not doing more work in chasing.
"We were outnumbered," he said simply. "Other teams had four riders, five riders; we only had our two there."
Other teams also pointed to small numbers as a reason not to commit any rider to the chase, though Tudor's Matteo Trentin also pointed to the level of confusion about groups and gaps as to why the chase perhaps did not get organised at the point when gaps were still small enough to close.
"To be honest, personally with us, our radio was broken, so we didn't know anything. We knew there was a break of whoever the guy was, plus the original breakaway, plus Van der Poel, plus people coming back. So I really had no clue what was going on," Trentin told Cyclingnews.
"Then actually at the end of the day it was only me and Marco Haller in the chasing group so it's not up to us. I think everyone was just waiting to go over the climbs to then actually organise and go."
Teams take positive view
Even though teams like Red Bull, Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QuickStep ultimately came away without a result, partly due to their own tactics, there were a lot of directors taking positives out of the situation rather than frustration.
For Lidl-Trek, it was positive signs to see Mads Pedersen not too far off the pace in key moments, only two races into his speedy return from injury.
"For me we had a good race. Mads was there, but at the point Mathieu went he was a bit too far out of position, which is sometimes the reality in Flemish Classics, but all in all, it was OK," Schär said.
"The form, we know, is here, more the question is his hand and the hand held up today, these are all positive notes we take out of it. So we have to see it in a positive way and Mads finished in the top 10 with the hand and everything he came from."
For Pedersen, who finished ninth in the end, eyes will be on the flatter In Flanders Fields (formerly Gent-Wevelgem) race coming on Sunday.
"The condition is there. E3 in the last years was good, yes, but in the history of Mads, E3 was not always top top, so this is a good note and we are very positive for Gent-Wevelgem which fits our characteristics even more," Schär said.
Red Bull were perhaps the biggest 'losers', essentially initiating the move that drew out Van der Poel, but missing the chasing move that nearly caught him. The team managed to get only one rider in the top 10 – Gianni Vermeersch in eighth – despite their numbers, but they were surprisingly upbeat about their efforts ahead of the next Classics.
"It was important to see again the good commitment but it's not easy, it's a WorldTour race, a really hard one-day race," Vanthourenhout said. "In the end it was good to see the commitment, good collaboration between the guys, but two or three times we missed the really important move and in these races it's not easy to go into the final with the right moves."
Whether these positive words actually turn into better results in the coming races remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: several teams had a chance on Friday to deny Van der Poel another win but – whichever way you spin it – they did not take it, and who knows when another opportunity like that may arrive.
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