Mini-Takeaways: E3 Saxo Classic 2024
Quickly breaking down today's Wout van Aert/Mathieu van der Poel showdown at a key pre-Tour of Flanders preparation race
Mathieu van der Poel stormed to a dominant solo victory today at the E3 Saxo Classic over the cobbled climbs of Flanders, while Wout van Aert, who, due to an extremely ill-timed crash on the Paterberg, finished a disappointing third, behind a surging Jasper Stuyven of Lidl-Trek, after a long chase in vain behind well over a minute after Van der Poel casually rolled over the finish line. Considering the race was contested over many of the same cobbled climbs featured at next weekend’s Tour of Flanders, this win, and particularly Van der Poel’s apparent ease en route to it, has sent a clear message that he will be incredibly difficult to beat at Flanders and that if a team like Visma wants to challenge him, they will need an extremely well-defined plan and to get their strong team, which has looked slightly ragtag over the last few weeks, back on track.
E3 Saxo Classic 2024 Top Ten
1) Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0
2) Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) +1’31
3) Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) +1’34
4) Tim Wellens (UAE) +1’48
5) Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) +1’50
6) Jhonatan Narváez (Ineo) +1’52
7) Nils Politt (UAE) +2’48
8) Toms Skujiņš (Lidl-Trek) +2’48
9) Vincenzo Albanese (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +2’48
10) Alex Kirsch (Lidl-Trek) +2’48
Race Notebook
79.6km: After Lidl-Trek, who was racing extremely aggressively all day, leads into the Taaienberg, Mathieu van der Poel attacks and immediately opens a gap.
76.4km: Van der Poel’s incredible form sees him take his gap up and over the top of the climb, but, with so long before the finish line, a strong, motivated chase group a few seconds behind, and a Jorgenson-led peloton chasing just behind them, the odds of Van der Poel holding this to the line aren’t good.
75.5km: After Mads Pedersen bridges up to him, Van der Poel seems to realize this and immediately sits up and waits for the chasers, which begs the question of why Pedersen expended the energy to make the bridge in the first place.
70.6km-67.3km: When the pace slows after the peloton regroups, Pedersen attacks. He is chased by Van der Poel, who is interestingly marked by Jorgenson, not Van Aert, who takes much longer to get on terms.
58.6km: When the peloton hits another cobbled climb, Oier Lazkano, clearly feeling confident, attacks while Van der Poel and Van Aert closely follow.
58.3km: At the top of the climb, we see why it is inadvisable to attack Van der Poel since he has counter-attacked, dropped Lazkano, and is mowing down the remnants of the early breakaway with Van Aert once again on his wheel. But, with Van Aert knowing his only advantage over Van der Poel is the numerical superiority of his Visma teammates, this move isn’t going anywhere as long as Van Aert is on the wheel.
47.5km: When the group comes back together, Lazkano attacks again as Jorgenson attempts to follow, while Van der Poel and Van Aert just watch each other as they sit much further back.
43.8km: The chasers close in on Lazkano when they hit the slopes of the Paterberg. To avoid a particularly uneven portion of the road, which was damaged so severely over the winter that they nearly didn’t include it in the race, Van der Poel hops up into the grass while taking the right-hand turn into the climb. Van Aert, who is sitting further back and doesn’t have a great line of sight, rides straight into the damaged gutter while still turning and immediately crashes.
43.7km: Van Aert gets back up, but the absurdly steep climb is the worst place to come to a stop since while Van Aert is just trying to get his bike moving, Van Aert is attacking and riding clear.
39.6km: On the brutal Oude Kwaremont, Van der Poel holds a 33-second lead while Van Aert attacks and rides away from his own teammate Jorgenson in an attempt to bridge solo. This is likely tempting, and perhaps the right thing, for Van Aert to do, but leaving an elite group of motivated chasers is risky.
36.7km: Over the top of the climb, Van Aert gets as close as 15 seconds to Van der Poel, but due to this massive surge, he slowly starts to fade, and the gap starts to go back out.
4.7km: Van Aert cracks so badly in the final few kilometers that the gap to Van der Poel is close to two minutes, and he is struggling to hold the wheel of Stuyven, who has reeled him in.
Finish: Van der Poel comes over the line for his first, and extremely dominant, E3 victory, while Van Aert coasts over the line behind Stuyven, who gets a well-deserved second place.
Key Takeaways
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Beyond the Peloton to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.