Van der Poel crushes competition for second year in a row in E3 Saxo Classic and sends warning to Pogacar with monster solo

The story before the start of the one-day race was the return of Wout van Aert. And so it became a duel between the old rivals because Mathieu van der Poel was also there. With Tadej Pogacar on the starting list, repeating the 2023 edition seemed possible. Still, the world champion decided to skip the race because he was focused on the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. The Slovenian would be competing for the first time there.

Without Pogacar, the peloton departed for the 'Mini-Tour of Flanders' in Harelbeke. And it was chaos from the start: a crash caused four Soudal Quick-Step riders to drop out, including Dries Van Gestel. Wout van Aert suffered a flat tire in the meantime, while the peloton was suddenly blown to pieces: a group of 50 riders broke away, and not only Van Aert but also Van der Poel, Filippo Ganna, and Mads Pedersen were not part of it. Matteo Jorgenson and Stefan Küng, among others, were, and they caught up with the second group in no time, gaining three minutes.

Alpecin-Deceuninck had to play catch-up. The second group caught up with the leaders after a super-fast first half of the race, so we had a 'normal' race again. At last, the attackers could devise a plan: Aimé De Gendt (Cofidis) and Casper Pedersen (Soudal Quick-Step) managed to open a small gap. But all hell broke loose before they could build up a big lead. With more than 80 kilometers to go on the Taaienberg, Mads Pedersen accelerated.

The Dane went full throttle, and only Van der Poel could stay on his wheel. Ganna managed to return at his own pace, just as he did in Milan-Sanremo, but men like Küng, Jorgenson, Jasper Stuyven, and Tim Wellens had to chase. Josh Tarling and Matteo Trentin joined them, but the strongest were unmistakably at the front. The gap grew quickly, so they (along with the remaining two) had more than a minute's lead on the closest chasers with 50 kilometers to go. Van Aert was in group three; he did not have the power to get involved.

In the final, where it began to rain, Pedersen was the first to attack the Paterberg, but he did not cause any damage. The Oude Kwaremont quickly followed, and Van der Poel set a furious pace. Pedersen was the only one who could keep up for a while, but the Dutch rider's pace was too strong. The Dane dropped back, and the former world champion was alone, with 37 kilometers to go.

Pedersen had a good fight on the flat stretches, but the defending champion was superior on the hills. Slowly but surely, he extended his lead: 20 seconds, 30 seconds... It seemed to be going his way despite a scary moment at a roundabout, where he almost crashed. The world cyclo-cross champion's superb steering skills kept him upright, after which he calmly extended his lead. As he entered the flat final kilometers, the gap between him and the next rider was already one minute.

Ganna could not catch up with the Dane; he was half a minute behind. The Jorgenson group was already 2.30 minutes behind, so Van der Poel created a war zone in the E3 Saxo Classic. The second favorites group caught De Gendt and Pedersen, but Van der Poel crossed the line in Harelbeke with a comfortable advantage. Pedersen finished second, ahead of Ganna.