Dress rehearsal for the Tour of Flanders in ten days (March 31), the E3 Grand Prix gave rise to a mano a mano between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout Van Aert, the two eternal rivals of the classics and the glades.
And the match turned in favor of the Dutchman, who is increasingly asserting himself as one of the major favorites for the Tour of Flanders, the next Monument of the classics to come, Sunday March 31.
A major contributor to his teammate Philipsen’s victory in Milan – San Remo on Saturday, van der Poel set off alone in the Paterberg, some 43 km from the finish.
At the same time, Van Aert, winner of the last two editions, was the victim of a fall in the same Paterberg.
Also, alone at the front of the race in his rainbow jersey, the Dutchman quickly opened up a gap reaching 30 seconds in Old Kwaremont, 40 km from the finish. However, Van Aert set off alone in pursuit of his rival, and from there, the semi-classic boiled down to a match between the two northern racing specialists.
Van der Poel seemed stronger on the climbs, while the Belgian seemed to gain the advantage on the flat sections.
Van Aert, however, partially made up his deficit, coming back to within 12 seconds of van der Poel, but the latter once again widened the gap, which stabilized at 30 seconds around twenty kilometers from the goal.
Mathieu van der Poel’s 𝒓𝒆́𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍! 🙌 The Dutchman had a perfect race and won the E3 Saxo Classic for the first time in his career. Stuyven and van Aert complete the podium pic.twitter.com/O1CbQ8N2C7
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) March 22, 2024
After which, around 15 km from the goal, the standoff definitely turned to Van der Poel’s advantage, the clear winner with 1′30′’. For his part, Van Aert, 3rd, was joined by counter-attackers 5 km from the goal and had to give up 2nd place to Stuyven.
