Tour of Flanders, 2023

Tadej Pogačar won the men's race at the Tour of Flanders in a thrilling race between the greats of cycling.

After another crash for the peloton, though, the SD Worx team started making moves towards the front of the race in order to protect their riders and start to lead the race. Meanwhile, SD Worx, Trek Segafredo and UAE all sent riders up the road to chase the leaders. With 55 kilometers to go, attacks began to bring the big three—Van der Poel, Van Aert or Pogačar—back to the front of the race. Ahead of them, the lead group of 11 worked hard to maintain their lead on the three superpowers of cycling, with Neilson Powless, one of the few Americans in the race, in the mix in the lead group. As usual, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the mix, those were the riders to watch, but there were quite a few other contenders on the start line. But similar to the men’s race, a big crash as riders came into Oudenaarde took out quite a few riders in the main peloton. By 77 kilometers to go, the chase group made contact with the breakaway, creating a 19-rider strong lead group, nearly two minutes ahead of the peloton containing many of the race favorites. Meanwhile, the crashes allowed a group of eight to continue to grow their advantage in a breakaway. At 70 kilometers into the race, a crash took out several riders and split the newly-reformed peloton—but that wouldn’t be the only crash of the day. At 140 kilometers to go, a huge crash in the peloton took out many riders including Peter Sagan—racing his last Tour of Flanders before his upcoming retirement—and Tim Wellens. At 273.4 kilometers with six cobble segments and 19 climbs, the men’s Tour of Flanders—the second Monument race of the season—runs from Brugge to Oudenaarde in Belgium. The race was marred by many crashes, and the racing was some of the most exciting we’ve seen all season.

After being outsprinted in 2022, Pogacar looked to win the race on the cobbled climbs as he first distanced Wout van Aert, and then Van der Poel.

While Pogacar will sit out Easter Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix, the likes of Van der Poel, Van Aert and Pedersen will do battle again over the cobblestones of Northern France in the Hell of the North next weekend. It was on this same climb that Van der Poel put in a powerful unseated surge to snap Van Aert’s elastic and push Pogacar to the extreme of his limits. His focus will now switch to the Ardennes ahead of his bid to win a third Tour de France in July. But Pogacar used his supreme time trialling ability to hold the Dutchman at bay and ensure there was no repeat scenario of last year’s race on the home straight. After sitting up over the summit, he was joined by the in-form Jumbo-Visma duo of Van Aert and Christophe Laporte, as well as Van der Poel and Britain’s Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers). Having dropped Van der Poel, he picked off the other escapees and then swept past Pedersen to open up a small but telling gap over the summit. They were later joined by Benoit Cosnefroy (Ag2R-Citroen) and Matteo Jordenson (Movistar) after the duo kicked clear on the climb of Berendries. Maciejuk promptly took to social media to apologise for causing the high-speed crash, which resulted in scores of riders hitting the deck and notably ended the race of the Belgian Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates). While the 23-year-old was able to stay up on two wheels, dozens of riders were not so lucky as carnage ensued in his wake. Denmark’s Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) held off a late surge from Belgium’s Van Aert to secure the final spot on the podium after a strong chase group came home in Oudenaarde over a minute behind. The 107th edition was also the fastest with Pogacar coming home to complete the 273.4km course in an whopping average speed of 44.1kmph. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) wrote the next scintillating chapter in his illustrious career with a remarkable solo victory in the fastest Tour of Flanders ever raced.