Can anyone stop WVA and MVDP at Flanders?
Cycling’s longstanding rivals will battle once again on Sunday. Can they be beaten?
Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert clashed for the first time in October 2011, at a junior cyclocross race in Kalmthout, Belgium. The former was 16, the latter 17. On that occasion, van der Poel beat van Aert, setting in motion a rivalry which has dominated cycling like almost no other in the 21st century.
Thirteen years on, van der Poel and van Aert are set to clash once more on Sunday at the Tour of Flanders, the next chapter in an absorbing duel which sees no end.
Van der Poel is the Dutchman on a Belgian team, Alpecin-deceuninck, the reigning road and cyclo-cross world champion, the man who has found a way to perfectly channel his power into a select group of one-day races. If he doesn’t win – which he often does – he comes very close to doing so.
The eternal second
Van Aert is the Belgian on a Dutch team, Visma-lease a Bike, the rider who seems to finish second more than any other, thanks to his mastery of all sorts of different terrains; he has been runner-up in the road race and the time trial at the World Championships, but has also won a Tour de France mountain stage. However, he has a habit of missing out and being unlucky just when it matters most.
Since the last time van Aert won one of cycling’s Monuments, 2020’s Milan-san Remo, van der Poel has won four. Last year, he beat van Aert at Milansan Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Parisroubaix, and the World Championships.
Different class
Victory at the E3 Saxo Classic last weekend was the latest where van der Poel has looked like a step above his biggest rival. His attack on the Paterberg, with 41km to go, was timed to perfection, even if it was aided by van Aert crashing at almost exactly the same time.
“It changed everything,” van Aert said post-race. “It was a long chase. It was a stupid crash.”
For his part, van der Poel said that he didn’t realise the Visma-lease a Bike rider had hit the deck; either way, once he had a gap, it looked unlikely that he would ever be brought back, and so it proved.
At Flanders on Sunday, the pair will duke it out once more. They seem a step above everyone else, able to bend a race to their will.
Van Aert will take heart from the fact van der Poel was beaten by a strong Lidl-trek at Ghent-wevelgem on Sunday. The Belgian’s Visma-lease a Bike squad provides more options than his Dutch counterpart’s Alpecin-deceuninck, and it will be impossible to cover all moves. That might just be the key to countering the world champion’s power.
“Since van Aert’s last Monument win, van der Poel has won four”