Mathieu van der Poel Makes History with Fifth Monumental Victory in Tour of Flanders

Monday April 1, 2024 at 7:37 PM

Mathieu van der Poel soloed to his third victory in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. It is a special victory for the world champion in several respects. Not only can he now call himself co-record holder in Flanders’ Most Beautiful, Van der Poel is now also the most successful Dutch cyclist when it comes to victories in the five monuments.

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Three times in the Tour of Flanders, Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. Five monumental victories. No Dutch rider (men and women) does better. Last year, Mathieu van der Poel tied the score with Dutch cycling greats Jan Raas and Hennie Kuiper, both good for four monumental victories.

Raas was one of the best classics riders of his generation in the 1970s and 1980s. This resulted in wins in Milan-San Remo (1977), the Tour of Flanders (1979 and 1983) and Paris-Roubaix (1982). In the same period, Kuiper was also the best in Milan-San Remo (1985), Tour of Flanders (1981) and Paris-Roubaix (1983) and also won the Tour of Lombardy (1981).

Mathieu van der Poel has now said goodbye to his two older compatriots. The counter now stands at five monuments and there is a chance that the current world champion will add another monument to his already impressive list of honors on Sunday (with Paris-Roubaix). Van der Poel will normally also appear at the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in about three weeks.

Dutch monument winners (men)

5 – Mathieu van der Poel

4 – Jan Raas, Hennie Kuiper

3 – I from Roo

2 – Adrie van der Poel, Niki Terpstra

1 – Wim van Est, Arie den Hartog, Ab Geldermans, Peter Post, Jan Janssen, Evert Dolman, Cees Bal, Johan Lammerts, Steven Rooks, Servais Knaven, Wout Poels, Bauke Mollema, Dylan van Baarle