AFPMatteo Jorgenson is the leader at Visma-LAB
NOS Wielrennen•vandaag, 08:11
Mark Voortman
editor NOS Sport
Mark Voortman
editor NOS Sport
When Merijn Zeeman looked at the list he had made before the start of the cycling season at the end of last year, he could tick things off to his heart’s content. Winning the Giro d’Italia. Check. Tour de France. Check. Vuelta. Check. At least ten victories for Olav Kooij. Check.
Jumbo-Visma achieved a total of 69 victories last season, the most of any team in the World Tour. A miracle year.
Zeeman could not tick only one box: victory in the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix. Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel had simply been too good, Zeeman acknowledged.
In 2024 he wanted to see things differently. “We have to come up with a trick to defeat those men.”
Flemish cycling hearts bleed
In Flanders, where cycling is experienced by many as a religion, the Tour of Flanders is the high mass. If you extend that allegory, then Wout van Aert is the pope. “He is the most popular rider in Belgium,” says VRT sports journalist Maarten Vangramberen Along the Line and Surrounding Areas. “Even Remco Evenepoel is a lot less popular.”
When Van Aert sat on the asphalt in Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday, his chafed shoulders shaking from crying, Belgium wept with him. A collective dream shattered on the N48 towards Ronse. “All Flemish cycling hearts bled when he fell,” says Vangramberen. “It was a serious earthquake. De Ronde was decapitated.”
He even expects fewer viewers on Sunday due to the absence of Van Aert.
Watch Van Aert’s fall here:
Van Aert breaks collarbone in a hard fall in Dwars door Vlaanderen
His colleague Renaat Schotte thinks differently. “The Tour remains the Tour, even without a number of key players. The general public comes to the event and the popular festival. It is the highlight of the Flemish cycling week. Although many people are genuinely sad about the absence of Van Aert and Jasper Stuyven, another Belgian contender.”
Schotte will report on the Tour of Flanders from his motorcycle for the nineteenth time on Sunday for Belgian radio and television. During the reconnaissance of the final, he saw banners hanging along the course the day before the start. “With hearts for Wout and Jasper. I expect many expressions of spontaneous solidarity.”
Tour of Flanders live at NOS
The Tour of Flanders for men can be seen on Sunday from the start at 9.55 am on NOS.nl and in the NOS app with commentary from Joris van den Berg and Stef Clement. The race will be broadcast on television from 1:10 PM on NPO 1.
The women’s match can be followed from 3 p.m. on NOS.nl and in the NOS app with commentary from Andries Lamain and Roxane Knetemann.
Van Aert played a major role in ‘Zeeman’s trick’. Just like Christophe Laporte and Jan Tratnik. They are all not there. Dylan van Baarle is, according to Zeeman he is “perhaps one hundred percent fit” after skipping Dwars door Vlaanderen.
And after his victory on Wednesday, Matteo Jorgenson is high on the favorites lists. Tiesj Benoot is considered a possible outsider and Per Strand Hagenes is back in the team after his fall in E3 Saxo Classic.
Are they good enough together to stop Van der Poel? In any case, they will play the game, according to Zeeman.
This is what Zeeman said on Friday about Sunday’s battle:
Visma-LAB is looking for a formula after Van Aert’s fall: ‘Van Baarle has already defeated Mathieu’
Due to the trouble at Visma-Lease a Bike and also at Lidl-Trek – where leader Mads Pedersen is riding after his fall on Wednesday, but says he is not good enough to compete for the win – eyes are even more focused on the world champion’s team. And that can play into the hands of others, says Schotte.
“If there are attacks, everyone will say to Mathieu’s team: just solve it. And that could ultimately break him. It could be a very open Tour. Maybe for the first time in about twenty years we will a winner from an early breakaway. Oliver Naesen could be that, for example.”
Chaotic opening phase
Former rider and NOS cycling analyst Stef Clement also suspects a chaotic opening phase. He expects that several teams will conspire in an attempt to get Van der Poel under. “They’ll have to. Beating him one-on-one is going to be difficult.”
As far as Clement is concerned, Visma-Lease a Bike is still a contender for the overall victory. “They also won Dwars door Vlaanderen, didn’t they? At the beginning of the spring they had five or six riders who could win the Tour. That is still two and a half. Even if Wout van Aert had been there, someone else would have rider of the team can win the race. Jorgenson is simply top at the moment.”
He also mentions Stefan Küng, Valentin Madouas and Naesen as contenders. “It will be interesting to see if they can turn the switch. All spring they thought there was nothing to be achieved, now they have to believe they can win.”
2024-03-30 07:11:08
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