Every year riders say they want to target the Ardennes races, this period of racing in late April with hilly races in Belgium and beyond. It’s a trap.

First a geography lesson in pedantry. “The Ardennes” is a label applied to a series of hilly races in late April spanning from the Brabantse Pijl to Liège-Bastogne-Liège with the Amstel Gold Race and today’s Flèche Wallonne along the way. How many are actually in l’Ardenne?

One, Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The map above comes from ardennebelge.be and you can see Bastogne in the middle on the right. Liège though sits outside to the north. But another site writes “the Ardennes is a land of nuances. Its borders are always fluid” and you can argue Liège and Huy are gateways to l’Ardenne and so the Flèche dabbles with the border area, especially early today around Esneux.

All this is fine in a heuristic sense. Cycling insiders know what “the Ardennes” means, it’s become a catch-all label for the races in a similar part of the world at a similar time of year. Geographical imprecision is normal, take the five Monuments: Milan-Sanremo doesn’t start in Milan any more; the Tour of Flanders doesn’t tour Flanders, Paris-Roubaix starts in Compiègne and Il Lombardia, formerly the Tour of Lombardia, only ever visits three of the 12 provinces of Lombardy these days. Liège-Bastogne-Liège is the most honestly named Monument.

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Those riders that are too light for the cobbled classics can find terrain to suit here and something to aim for, just as the cobbled classics specialists get their races earlier this month. Google the phrase briller dans les Ardennes and you get a stream of riders hoping to “shine in the Ardennes” that goes back as far as the internet.

But it’s a very difficult goal. For starters we’re talking about four races whereas the cobble specialists get many more with the likes of Le Samyn, Dwars door Vlaanderen, the E3 and plenty more. Even if this window expands to include the Tour of the Basque Country it’s still an evanescent moment in the calendar. By contrast among these cobbled races there’s variety, the Ronde van Vlaanderen for example is culturally a highlight of this cobbled season but has so many climbs now that it excludes plenty of cobbled specialists. The average weight of this year’s podium was under 70kg. Now it’s hardly a climber’s paradise but the point is that riders thinking of the Ardennes could tag the Ronde too. Romain Grégoire has done just this year.

Otherwise “the Ardennes” is a tiny part of the calendar to hang spring hopes on. Right now Matteo Jorgenson makes a cruel illustration as he put his focus on these races only to break a collarbone in the Amstel last Sunday. Now anyone can target a grand tour and leave in the first week too; it’s more that targetting these races means aiming at just four races or in the case of Jorgenson three as he didn’t do the Pijl. Even if he was left unharmed in the Amstel it’s a tiny window, a spyhole in the calendar. Nevermind Jorgenson as every year plenty aim for the same.

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Still targetting the “Ardennes” races has made increasing sense, these races increasingly reward similar riders. The Amstel has evolved over the years to become hillier. It used to finish in Maastricht and was open to sprinters like Erik Zabel, Johan Museeuw and Olaf Ludwig (pictured).

Similarly the Flèche Wallonne may feel like the most scripted race of the season with its uphill finish that has seen a bunch sprint every time since 2004. We’ll never know if Mauri Vansevenant could have broken the run in 2020 when he had a good lead with 10km to go only to crashed into a bank of stinging nettles. The Scheldeprijs by contrast has had more tactical variety this century. But it wasn’t always this way. The idea of the Flèche Wallonne was to from cross one side of Wallonia to the other, a direct line across the map or a giant arrow, hence the name, the “Walloon Arrow”. It’s been hilly because of geography but most editions have had a flat finish.

Today it’s defined by the vicious Mur finish and rather than an arrow it has almost become a circuit race where the start location varies but sees the race defined by laps around Huy. Huy is a settled point but this owes itself to a historical accident.

In the early 1980s the race was owned by Théo Van Griethuysen, a publisher known for his newspaper Le Sportif 70 which became Le Sportif 80 magazine. He was looking for a new place to host the finish. One day he was driving along the Meuse valley when his car broke down. He called a local hotel and stayed overnight at the Hotel du Fort which belonged to a friend while his car was being repaired. One thing led to another, the hotel owner called over the mayor and talks began and the race finished in Huy. Two years later the Chemin des Chapelles was picked for the finish and soon branded le Mur de Huy, the “wall of Huy”.

It begs the question, would today’s finish up the Mur exist if a car part hadn’t failed one day in 1982?

Race photos: ASO/Thomas Maheux + Gaëtan Flamme

The post Allusions, Illusions and Delusions in the Ardennes first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Remco Evenepoel accelerates up the Cauberg. Both he and Mattias Skjelmose are looking at the road ahead but Romain Grégoire is fixated on the two riders in front of him as he is about to be dropped. With Evenepoel able to ditch the Frenchman finisseur here, all that would be left would be to out-sprint Skjelmose and this time there was no surprise. This was the moment the race was won.

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An early breakaway of nine with Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarché), Filip Maciejuk (Movistar), Marco Frigo (NSN), Warren Barguil (Picnic-PostNL), Siebe Deweirdt (Flanders-Baloise), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Pinarello-Q36.5), Joseba Lopez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Valentin Retailleau (TotalEnergies) and Abram Stockman (Unibet Rose Rockets).

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RedBull-Bora-Hansgrohe led the bunch for a long time but less of a pursuit and more a chaperone role, containing their advantage with Tim van Dijke and Danny van Poppel on hand to prevent the lead going beyond four minutes. Textbook stuff.

Indeed by the time the TV coverage started the status quo persisted. Having been spoilt by long range moves in the Ronde and a relentless Paris-Roubaix this was more subdued.

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With less than an hour to go Romain Grégoire attacked on the Kruisberg. Remco Evenepoel followed and along came Mattias Skjelmose, Matteo Jorgenson, Kévin Vauquelin, plus Mathieu Burgaudeau who soon vanished. It saw four of the top-five picks from this blog’s preview were going clear. This isn’t to seek applause for perception, more that the obvious names in the action.

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The plot twist came when Kévin Vauquelin crashed, seeming to resume pedalling too soon after taking a left hand bend and grounding his pedal causing him to wash out. This took out Artz – who’d come back from the early breakaway – and Matteo Jorgenson to crash, the American broke a collarbone, ruining his long-held plans for the Ardennes. A surprise but not a shock on a tight course that often feels like it’s one turn away from taking an alley behind a row of houses.

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This left Grégoire, Skjelmose and Evenepoel clear. With the Frenchman the fastest on paper for a sprint, Evenepoel rode hard the penultimate time up the Cauberg to eject him. This climb is unremarkable but after 230km it was a mountain to climb for Grégoire. Evenepoel did not need to attack, just set a pace too high for Grégoire. Having been on the receiving end of this in the Ronde now it was Evenepoel’s turn to look back and adjust his pace accordingly to keep the rival at bay.

It was déjà vu with Evenepoel and Skjelmose away again in the finish of the Amstel. But how could the Dane win this time? His turns were looking shorter and less applied. They rode together up the Cauberg with nobody behind in sight to panic their sprint.

Evenepoel had Skjelmose in front and as the finish got closer, a flicker of doubt: what if Skjelmose’s lighter build could be an advantage in a late sprint, to go from low speed to high. Evenepoel was leaving it late but with 150m he launched in a low gear, almost too low for a sprint but this saw him accelerate, pass and go clear while Skjelmose looked to have the same kind of spaghetti legs endured by Pogačar in Roubaix and could barely sprint.

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Benoît Cosnefroy won the sprint for third, he joined a counter-move and was the quickest. This group eased on the last lap to give the lead two almost two minute’s lead. A nod to Marco Frigo of NSN who was away all day but still able to latch onto this group and even had the audacity to launch the sprint.

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The Verdict
The course had plenty of twists and turns, alas the racing did not. The early break went, it splintered and Remco Evenepoel won from the breakaway. The host production seemed to have limited means – one helicopter, fewer motos – as well which meant viewers saw less of the other parts of action at times.

If Evenepoel made it look easy, it’s a credit to him and his team. They controlled before he rode the perfect race, covering Grégoire’s move, towing the break clear, ejecting Grégoire on the part of the course where their differences were exposed the most and then sapping Skjelmose to ensure the sprint was barely contested.

Evenepoel was expressing an interest in the upcoming Flèche Wallonne, and having worked on his sprint and short efforts over the winter it’ll be interesting to see what he can do, does he bank on this or is his speciality of going clear before a tactic to be tried even in the Flèche, a race that has ended more often in a bunch sprint this century than the Scheldeprijs? Trying to convert the Amstel’s plan into next Sunday’s Liège will be harder too given more opposition. All this though feels eminently possible but he’s changed teams over the winter with the stated aim of tackling the Tour de France.

Skjelmose is in a similar situation to Evenepoel only with a fraction of the pressure and public scrutiny. A career project on the team to take him towards grand tour success has been derailed by injury but also results and now he’s on a team invested in Juan Ayuso so has to find results at other times too.

Grégoire impressed for the audacity to launch the move but seems to have a ceiling when it comes to competing with the very best but if the team wanted more they’ll bank on his fourth place and the 275 UCI points with a further 100 for Ewen Costiou covering in ninth place. Cosnefroy put UAE on the podium again and having been plagued by knee injuries apparently it’s all gone. Albert Withen Philipsen made the counter move and the finished 8th, impressive for a 19 year old even in these times.

The post Amstel Gold Race Review first appeared on The Inner Ring.

An open race with Remco Evenepoel as the lone representative of the Unbeatables, can he take on the field and win? The Amstel marks an interlude between Sunday Monuments but makes for a fun race because it is so tricky and technical, as Tadej Pogačar discovered to his peril last year.

The Course: a 257km labyrinth contained in a 20km x 30km section of the Netherlands that resembles an appendix dangling between Belgium and Germany. Held to promote a flat and tasteless beer, the course is seemingly the opposite with all sorts of surprises and a long finish.

There’s 3,300m of vertical gain and none of the climbs alone are hard but 33 of them add up and in the final third positioning counts for so much as the course is full of tight turns and knowing where to move up counts for plenty. Go into a climb beyond 20th place and it’s easy to miss a split or be forced into a costly acceleration to make it across. Go in third wheel and a rider can afford to drift back a few places if it suits and this way save a lot of energy.

The Finish: up the Cauberg and then 1.5km over the finish line to make a for a tactical moment where it’s a long way to hold out if a climber wants to jump on the Cauberg, where dropped sprinters can be towed back into contention and more.

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The Contenders: Remco Evenepoel (RedBull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is the star name in the absence of fellow unbeatables Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel. Given the way one of these names wins the spring classics to the exclusion of the rest of the field then this ought to be his turn. But jostling for position and subtle tactics are not his strong points although he can handle both, indeed last year’s race is a good example where he bided his time before setting off in pursuit of Pogačar. He can sprint well too these days but last year’s race is a bad example where he lost to Pogačar and Skjelmose.

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Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) leads a team that’s struggling this season, currently sandwiched between Uno-X and Cofidis on the UCI rankings. If much of this has been to injury for Pedersen and Ayuso, the team were not the collective force on the cobbled classics and they now bring a new cast to the Ardennes classics. Skjelmose is a good rider but the Amstel twice in a row is a big ask. Albert Withen Philipsen and Quinn Simmons are outside picks, the Dane was strong in the breakaway during the Ronde van Limburg earlier in the week.

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Visma-LAB have been one of world’s best teams and this is their home race but they’ve regularly struggled here, only winning once in their post-Rabobank days thanks to Wout van Aert’s photogenic appearance in 2021. Matteo Jorgenson is out to remedy this and should thrive on these roads but we can find quotes from him saying he can’t sprint so it’s probably solo or bust. Ben Tullet and Axel Zingle bring more options, the latter packs a good sprint but would prefer the finish on the Cauberg itself.

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It’s a pity the Brabantse Pijl has been moved to a Friday slot as plenty of riders skipped it but Benoît Cosnefroy (UAE) made the breakaway that got caught at the flamme rouge and still sprinted third place in the finish. Dropped by Decathlon, due to go to Picnic-PostNL only for the deal to fall through late, he was hired by UAE as a bargain so is not a strategic pick but is still their best rider here as one of several riders who make the “Ardennes” a big goal when it’s only four races in under 10 days from the Pijl to Liège.

Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) is almost a copy-paste of the paragraph above, in the break in the Pijl but salvaging fourth place and another rider who aims for the tiny window of the Ardennes.

Staying with French riders brings us to Ineos with three Gallic options: Dorian Godon to hold on for a sprint, Axel Laurance to provoke a move or two and win from a reduced sprint and Kévin Vauquelin to make a race-winning attack.

Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-PremierTech) might be the best hope for a home win but a World Tour win against this dense a field is a lot to ask for… update: especially as he’s been mildly ill.

Bahrain have a cohesive team but Pello Bilbao‘s win rate is low, ditto Matej Mohorič. Edoardo Zambanini is promising.

Finally some more names with Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QS) able to race for himself. Alex Baudin (EF) in form and Mauro Schmid (Jayco) is having a great season. Alex Aranburu (Cofidis) looks rejuvenated, Clément Champoussin (XDS-Astana) is riding high in results but how to win while Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-CMA CGM) can be a sniper on a good day and is capable of winning World Tour races.

	Remco Evenepoel
	–
	Simmons, Skjelmose, Jorgenson, Vauquelin, Van Wilder
	Schmid, Grégoire, Cosnefroy, Lapeira, Del Grosso
	Laurance, Godon, Aranburu

Weather: a cool 14°C with some sunshine and a light 10km/h breeze from the NW, and an outside chance of rain.

TV: the race starts at 11.10 and the finish is due around at 17.10 CEST. Host broadcaster NOS goes on air at 1.10pm with the women’s race due in at 2.00pm but there should be a livestream on their website earlier.

Women’s Amstel Gold Race preview: local hopes of a home winner look more likely. This blog’s picks are Puck Pieterse (Fenix-PremierTech), Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Micha Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime), the latter being last year’s winner and in form. But ProCyclingUK.com has a more detailed preview and different picks.

The post Amstel Gold Race Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Raymond Riotte has died at the age of 86. He had a career in two parts, a blazing debut and then seven years of more patient work as domestique to many top names.

Born in 1940 to parents who were farm workers near Chablis in France’s Yonne department, Riotte was one of eight children. He wasn’t interested in cycling at first, preferring football where he was a goalscorer for FC Châtel-Gérard. France had compulsory military service and at the age of 19 Riotte was sent to Algeria, then a French colony, where he spent 28 months. Not knowing anyone on his arrival at camp, he found an ally from Le Creusot, a town the other side of the Morvan hills. This friend lent him his bike he told his local newspaper Le Journal du Centre and he got a taste for cycling.

On return from Algeria, at the age of 22 he took out a racing licence and thrived. Starting out as a fourth category rider, he moved up a level each year and by 1965 he was the amateur champion of Burgundy and earning good prize money most weekends. Sometimes professionals raced the local criteriums but there was a clash, the pros wanting to top-up meagre wages while for locals “these were our Worlds, we wanted to impress the pros” Riotte told Le Journal du Centre.

During the Ronde de Seignelay in 1966, Riotte’s local race but also staged as a post-Tour de France criterium, Jean Stablinski, captain of the Ford team that had just won the Tour de France pleaded to Riotte to stop showing up the pros. Accounts of this from Riotte vary across outlets but the synthesis is “Stab” noted Riotte might be earning cash but he was having to pay his own expenses when it came to kit and the Ford captain said something mid-race to the effect of “leave us alone and you’ll get your own material”. Riotte said he thought the remark would be forgotten once the race was over but he was suddenly offered a pro contract. Only “it was 500 Francs [NB: per month, €725 in today’s money] and I could get that in my local races in two weekends” he told L’Equipe in 2015. He turned down the offer.

In the following spring Riotte won another local race in Nevers against pros and while the Ford team had become Bic that year it still wanted to recruit Riotte. Team manager Raphaël Geminiani gave him an ultimatum: sign or we won’t ask a third time. Riotte agreed and turned pro in the spring of 1967 for Bic team, joining the likes of Jacques Anquetil, Lucian Aimar, Julio Jiminez, Jean Graczyk, Vic Denson and especially Jean Stablinski. The two became good friends, one the son of miners, the other from farming. He may only have earned 500 Francs to start with but everything would change soon.

He proved helpful in the classics, rode the Vuelta and come the summer won a stage of the GP du Midi-Libre, a now-defunct stage race before the Tour de France that was as important as the Dauphiné. That summer’s Tour de France changed format and was ridden by national teams. Jacques Anquetil opted not to ride but France team manager Marcel Bidot was still spoilt for choice with the likes of 1966 Tour winner Lucien Aimar, Raymond Poulidor and Roger Pingeon. Bidot had Stablinski as a road captain and he lobbied to bring Riotte. It may not have been an easy conversation to pick a rider who had turned pro just three months ago but Riotte had impressed in a short time and was hired to work as a domestique.

On Stage 5 of the Tour de France the Tour was racing on the roads near Roubaix that were home to Stablinski and mid-stage he spotted Riotte and Pingeon lurking at the back of the peloton. “Take Pingeon to the front right away” ordered Stablinski and as they moved up a breakaway was going clear so Riotte sprinted to join it, towing Pingeon across. It was the right move and Pingeon was in yellow that evening and Riotte in green. Things were only going to get better.

On Stage 7 to Strasbourg Riotte got in the breakaway only to get beaten in the finish by Michael Wright, a British rider but who’d grown up in Liège and barely spoke English, he was seemingly in cahoots with Belgian rider Georges Van den Berghe who had grabbed Riotte’s jersey before the final corner to slow Riotte. This act of European co-operation in Strasbourg enraged Riotte who was fuming at the finish. Only for TV reporter Robert Chapatte to stun him by telling him he’d got the yellow jersey.

It was only for a day because the next stage was in the Vosges mountains and Riotte was adrift to the point of being worried about being eliminated from the race while wearing yellow. He finished, and saw team mate Aimar take the race lead, as L’Equipe said at the time it was impressive for a neo-pro who three weeks before did not dream of wearing the French tricolore jersey, let alone yellow.

If only for a day it was special as Riotte made a name for himself, he even got a telegram from his local member of parliament, François Mitterand. This made him the darling of that year’s race, a feat heightened when he won the stage to Marseille. As the conclusion team mate Roger Pingeon won the race overall.

The Tour over, Riotte went back the series of criteriums and exhibition races to earn his fill, the decision to take an effective pay cut to turn pro paying for itself many times over now as he earned enough in a few months to build a large home in Noyers-sur-Serein close to where he was born. The team tripled his pay too.

The article above headlines that there’s a lot to expect from Riotte’s return to the Tour de France in 1968 but as dramatic as Riotte’s first Tour proved, he was picked by Bidot to be a helper. It was this role that he took on for the rest of his career, riding in the service of Raymond Poulidor and Bernard Thévenet but just as Eddy Merckx was monopolising the scene. He rode the Tour de France seven more times. In his own words he was a model team mate rather than a winner and this self-description did not come across as a boast either.

Riotte proved to be as much a roublard as a rouleur, a crafty type. He was adept at brokering alliances on the road between teams when there was a shared interest in the moment to chase or block others. Coming from Chablis, he would give out cases of white wine to the moto riders in the Tour de France, notionally to promote his home region but hoping they might repay the favour if he ever needed it on the road.

He was a fixture at local races in retirement, on hand to hand out prizes and even design courses. In retirement he’d keep up with former team mates, especially Poulidor, the “eternal second” who had never worn yellow. It meant if Poulidor visited then he had to see Riotte’s yellow jersey each time as had it framed and mounted inside a rim which hung in the hallway at home. At times it was as if Riotte had changed names because he was Riotte maillot jaune this and maillot jaune Riotte that. If he only wore yellow for a day it was also for a lifetime and will always be so.

The post Raymond Riotte Obituary first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Tadej Pogačar leads Wout van Aert into the Roubaix velodrome. With over 250km done in record time it felt possible that it could go either way but the more you review it, the more decisive the win for Wout van Aert becomes.

Normally these race reviews list the early breakaway’s riders. But there were none, a clue of the exceptional race to come. The bunch was often doing 60km/h and if UAE, Ineos, Alpecin, Lidl-Trek or Red Bull weren’t driving the pace then most of the other teams were busy trying to prove they exist by launching moves only to cancel each other out. Their attempts often lasted seconds. It was costly to open a gap and impossible to build a lead. The field split at one point.

Instead the big teams went into lead-out formation for the first cobbled sector but once delivered onto the pavé the intensity eased. Mike Teunissen even escaped for a moment, the first rider to breakaway and for the anecdote he’d later finish 10th, despite a crash and a puncture.

The mechanicals and mishaps began on the first sector. First to puncture… was apparently race organiser Thierry Gouvenou’s lead car, an incident curiously not relayed on race radio. Among the riders Mads Pedersen needed a bike change and began a long solo chase, alone at first to get into the vehicle convoy and then back to the bunch. If this looked disastrous, it was straightforward compared to what was to befall others.

The wheel of misfortune span for Wout van Aert next, puncturing with 150km to go. He got a quick bike change and without leaving the column of vehicles found, and he found team mate Owain Doull was there to help him back, the pair slaloming amid team cars trying making emergency pitstops for their riders.

UAE led the pace, their black and white kit contrasting with their rainbow-clad leader. Their pace split the peloton in half after the fifth cobbled sector, towing a group with all the main contenders clear. They stayed on the front and each further sector shrank the group further, Davide Ballerini fell, taking out Ineos pair Ben Turner and Josh Tarling. Visma-LAB lost Edoardo Affini and Per Strand Hagenes to mechanicals. It was like watching a pot of sauce reduce: the heat was on, but gently.

Then it Tadej Pogačar’s turn. He stood up on the pedals and started to freewheel on the pavé of Quérénaing, guiding his bike to a stop. Remember the peloton had split earlier, this meant his team car was not waiting, it was behind the group that was adrift.

In the moment Pogačar opted not to take a spare wheel but to ride a neutral service bike, presumably just to keep going without losing any more time and to make a bike change as soon as possible. Panic? Probably and a febrile moment for the Shimano crew too which made the cardinal mistake of stopping on the left of the road and seconds later caused a traffic jam. Look at the image below and you can see a medical car about to get snarled up and plenty of riders appearing.

Pogačar caught up with Hagenes and Tarling and others chasing but for a long time was without any team help, no spare bike nor team mates. He’d used up some helpers, Florian Vermeersch was being preserved and this left few riders and in the heat of the moment it seemed they could not be contacted via radio to help.

Up ahead Pogačar’s absence was visible. Alpecin didn’t accelerate immediately, Silvan Dillier seemed to be asking on the radio what to do. Come the next cobbled sector they, Red Bull and Visma picked up the pace, after all this was a race. The world champ spent almost five kilometres on the neutral service bike before the UAE team car could barge past others and once he got a spare this left him with another 18 kilometres of chasing to get back on, with the help of some diminished team mates but a lot of work done himself. He made it back just in time for the Arenberg forest.

Van Aert led into the five-star sector thanks to a lead-out from Matthew Brennan. Van der Poel was second, next an impressive Laurence Pithie (Red Bull) then Jasper Philipsen and Pogačar fifth wheel. Van Aert’s pace and the angular stones were causing havoc for many and suddenly Van der Poel peeled out of the line, one foot unclipped and then running, for a few steps this was his Froome-Ventoux moment until Philipsen handed over his bike and gave his leader a push to get going. Only Van der Poel was unable to clip his feet into the pedals. Philipsen came running back to recover his bike and race on.

This left Van der Poel walking back down the course to recover his original bike to find Tibor Del Grosso had popped his front wheel into Van der Poel’s forks. Only Del Grosso’s rim was cracked and as Van der Poel approached the end of the sector he was struggling to ride on. Already 90 seconds behind the front, now he got a bike from his team car but he was two minutes down. For a rider who seems to float on the cobbles this time he was on the receiving end.

Once upon a time, or just a few years ago, Arenberg was a point in the race where a contender or two could come undone and the exit was a moment for many to assess themselves ready for the race ahead and observe their rivals. Now most of the field had been eliminated.

There were seven riders in the lead: Pogačar, Van Aert and his team mate Christophe Laporte, plus Mads Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven, Laurence Pithie and Stefan Bissegger. All the big names minus Filippo Ganna and Van der Poel. Only Ganna was thirty seconds behind and closing, towing Jordi Meeus across.

Van der Poel started chasing and the gap went from two minutes to 1m30s. By this time it felt like the race was being narrated by a team of capricious scriptwriters locked in a room. Ganna punctured. Then Meus was dropped and moments later Pithie punctured to leave six in the lead.

At this point Van Aert’s route to victory started to become clear. He had a team mate in Laporte for support, Pogačar was sapped from his chase on a bike that didn’t fit him. Mads Pedersen was a menace but possibly still short of form while Stuyven and Bissegger outsiders. Pogačar punctured again and if he got a quick bike change, he had another long chase.

Behind Ganna was chasing at one minute, Van der Poel a further thirty seconds back. In reality this meant the Dutchman could see Ganna’s group and crucially was able to get into traffic of team cars behind and closed the gap. Ganna and Van der Poel could be seen talking, presumably an alliance to close the gap.

Now Van Aert punctured, with Pogačar passing him as he got a new bike. The Belgian was left chasing. Advantage Pogačar? He too chasing to get back to the front. This was a key phase in the race as Laporte eased up for Van Aert which let Pogačar get back and then Van Aert too. This also produced the concertina-effect where Van der Poel and Ganna were able to close the gap too. With still 54km to go Van der Poel was at 20 seconds.

This saw Wout van Aert attack just before entrance to the Auchy pavé. This was another crucial moment. In the annotated screengrab above you can see highlighted in yellow Van Aert on the attack while in the background highlighted in blue Van der Poel and Ganna are close. With Pogačar and then Pedersen chasing we got a sense of hierarchy, with the Dane who looked in trouble with his head dipping and back arched. Pogačar got across to Van Aert, passed him and the increase in pace was too much for Pedersen. With 53km to go Van Aert and Pogačar were away together and would not be caught.

Van der Poel was chasing with Mick van Dijke while Ganna was goner, a puncture saw the Italian distanced and then he wiped with the the flat tire sliding on a corner.

Pogačar led onto the 5-star Mons-en-Pévèle sector. Halfway through the sector he tried an attack – pictured above – but Van Aert got back, head bobbing. Both were tired but seemed to want to collaborate, each knew their chances together were better without with Van der Poel, their shared tormentor. This led to a stasis with the lead two clear of the group led by Van der Poel with Laporte, Pedersen, Stuyven, Bissegger and van Dijcke.

The final cobbled sectors saw Pogačar running out of road. Rather than accelerate he was starting to struggle to stay with Van Aert. The Belgian wasn’t attacking, instead he was smoother on the cobbles, taking better lines and conserving speed while Pogačar was less lucid. Even a late attack on the false flat in Hem before Roubaix was out of the question.

After 258km it came down to a two-up sprint. Pogačar led into the velodrome and across the finish line for the first time. There were no games. This wasn’t going to be a test of speed or tactics, just what was left. With half a lap remaining Van Aert launched, came around Pogačar and kept sprinting to the line while Pogačar had to sit down for a moment. Van Aert had won.

The Verdict
A vintage edition for the ages. Race director Thierry Gouvenou said it was probably among the best two two races he’d seen, for him as good as 2016 when Matt Hayman won. If he has a different vantage point to most it’s still hard to argue.

It was packed with drama but rarely, at least for the prime contenders, negative. Van der Poel will have hated losing two minutes but his chase only heightened the action and ennobled the breakaway as they tried to keep away. It would be a different kind of sport if mechanicals occurred with this frequency every weekend but this is why the race is most exceptional race on the calendar.

If Lady Luck kept shuffling cards, there was redistributive logic with all the big names having a set-back and being forced to overcome fate, none of the obvious names that would have gone in a preview were cancelled en route. Similarly she wasn’t over-promoting random riders, there was satisfaction that despite the chaos this was still a race among the best. Pogačar’s long chase may have cost him the win; Van der Poel’s even longer pursuit suggested he was the strongest. Neither got the openings they wanted.

For Pogačar a loss and the compulsion to return the next year. With the possibility of winning all five Monuments in a season gone, perhaps forever if he eschews Sanremo now, he still finished runner-up in a race where little more than a year ago taking to the start with ambition was seen as audacious. As much as he’ll want to return, he’ll haunted by the near-miss and lost chances. If he hadn’t punctured, if the team car had been closer and so on then he might have had the extra punch to shake Van Aert on a day when his greatest rival in Van der Poel was out of the picture.

This was Van Aert’s day. It was hardly a Germinal remake of the downtrodden Van Aert revolting. But it is a reward for patience and persistence, and in a year that began with a broken ankle and for a rider whose losses have helped enhanced his legend and created sympathy but were beginning to weigh on him. This time luck went his way. He made it his own race, leading in to Arenberg to chose his path. Attacking when Van der Poel was closing in to go clear with Pogačar. Surfing the stones when Pogačar was tiring. Getting on Pogačar’s wheel for the velodrome. Then a decisive sprint to leave Pogačar sitting.

31 years old, Van Aert has long been dreaming of taking one of the cobbled Monuments and always said if given the choice he’d want to win Roubaix. He got the chances and took them all. As a final act he dedicated the win to his former team mate Michael Goolaerts who had died in this race in 2018.

The post The Moment Paris-Roubaix Was Won first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Tadej Pogačar had one rival remaining in Mathieu van der Poel and ejected him on the early slopes of the Oude Kwaremont. Van der Poel did not crack but the gap began to open and the world champion was away. This was the moment the race was won.

It took some time for the early breakaway to form. Eventually a group of 13 were away, notably with Silvan Dillier from Alpecin as a potential relay rider for Mathieu van der Poel and also Sainbayaryn Jambaljamts of the BH-Burgos team, the first Mongolian professional. Imagine a Flemish wrestler taking part in the Naadam?

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UAE and Red-Bull were left to pull the peloton but they were halted by a level-crossing and officials when part of the peloton made it through when the red light was flashing. This is against the UCI rules which say passing when lights flash is a disqualification. But just as nobody racing looks at traffic lights when approaching a junction, nobody will look at the level crossing so there’s a grey zone for stopping time, a few flashes can allow a few riders through. The only consequence was it gave the breakaway some added time.

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Amid a reported million people by the road and the strijdvlags slapping in the wind all day the peloton had to be on alert. Normally the Eikenberg-Holleweg-Molenberg section sees the race begin to open up and gives teams a chance to fire riders forward in longshot raids or make tactical moves by sending a lieutenant clear. Only Nils Politt was baring his teeth as he towed the peloton and UAE formed a 16 rider group with Tadej Pogačar and his team mate Florian Vermeersch, Mathieu Van der Poel was there, Remco Evenepoel and just in time Wout van Aert made it. Did UAE plan it or was it forced on them as they were running out of riders with Cosnefroy crashing and Morgado on a bad day?

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So much for anyone trying to anticipate Pogačar’s moves later, the main move was sailing away with 100km to go and little more than 20km later caught the morning breakaway. Pogačar looked fidgety here, seeming to do more work than others while rivals, notably Van Aert were sat tight.

The penultimate time up the Oude Kwaremont saw Pogačar attack and briefly we got the “big four” billing as he went clear with Van der Poel, Evenepoel and Van Aert. But it was fleeting as Van Aert was distanced. Next came the Paterberg and Evenepoel was ejected here to leave two riders in the lead.

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Evenepoel was not dejected and began a long time trial to get back to Pogačar and Van der Poel. He could do nothing else as Van Aert and Mads Pedersen were behind, to continue guaranteed a podium finish. He was agonisingly close, a handful of seconds in it for a long time but in splendid isolation all the time. Up ahead his two targets benefitted from a TV moto. Pogačar was anxiously checking where Evenepoel was and adjusting his efforts to keep the Belgian away. Van der Poel was taking shorter, lighter turns but still sharing the work.

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The infamous Koppenberg came and went like a mere canal bridge. With the contest now down to two it was like a roulette in a casino and betting on red or black rather than anything more complicated. Pogačar was betting on the upcoming climb of the Kwaremont, Van der Poel staying with him to win from the sprint.

As soon as the final time up the Oude Kwaremont began Pogačar stood up on the pedals and slowly Van der Poel was dropped. He did not crack and apparently had been working on just this scenario in the hope of making a steady effort to pace himself back. But he could not and while the gap was close on the Paterberg Pogačar was clear by six seconds and victory salute included, built this to 34 seconds at the finish.

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The Verdict
Star power. If you wanted the stars in action you got it, if you wanted to see displays of power you got it. It was like watching a strong man contest where riders competed like village strongmen to lift barbells sagging with weights; or if you don’t like metaphors a wattage contest.

There was no surprise but still some suspense. Rather than tow the race to the Kwaremont with 60km to go, UAE split it with over 100km to go. And for long, Van der Poel was in a winning position, the reveal still came late, the final time up the Paterberg and there was only six seconds in it. But the hierarchy had been established long before.

The Ronde isn’t in danger of becoming a strength competition, it is. It lacks subtlety for this. But whether the organisers can prevent this is not so obvious, teams with the strongest riders still have an interest to make it so hard that everyone else is eliminated. Plus would Flanders Classics have it any other way, after a €395 serving of herring, wines and beer does does a ticket holder in the Paterberg VIP zone want to see Pogačar riding past first, chased by Van der Poel, then Evenepoel, then Van Aert? Would they settle for a group of twenty riding past which could go either way with the peloton behind.

Van der Poel could have tried to play with Pogačar’s nerves but he said it’s not his style. After all he wasn’t a limpet who’d latched on from the early breakaway, he too was racing to win and had to hope it was Pogačar who would crack. We may view their rivalry in columns of wins and losses but for them there’s more in terms of self-respect.

Many were keen to see how the Olympic champion might fare a in big one day race and Remco Evenepoel had a great day. Apparently he’d wanted to ride this before when at Soudal but management said no and a little more practice on the Paterberg could have seen him in contact with the lead two, if only until the next time but still. Indeed if this were a wattage contest, would Van der Poel come second or Evenepoel?

Van Aert of course finished fourth. But no mishaps this time and Pedersen still has Paris-Roubaix. This Sunday’s race looks like terrain where Van der Poel ought to be impossible to beat. But a year ago we wondered if Pogačar could cope with Roubaix.

The post Ronde van Vlaanderen Review first appeared on The Inner Ring.

All the spring classics have their charms and Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen is notable as a national event. No other country cherishes road racing like Belgium and huge numbers will be out along the route.

Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar meet again, this time with Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel as contenders and also home hopes for the crowds as no Belgian has been on the podium since 2021 and the last home winner was Gilbert in 2017.

The Course: 279km. The start is moved from Brugge to Antwerp, swapping one swank Hanseatic market square for another, with 125km of largely tarmac roads to get to Oudenaarde where the race will finish later on.

From there the race loops around like a bowl of spaghetti as the cobbles and climb come fast. After 150km it’s the Eikenberg chased by the Holleweg cobbled sector and then the Wolvenberg, this triple should mark the “opening” of the race.

The Oude Kwaremont is climbed three times. A 2.2km climb which makes it so different to all the other short ramps, it’s steep at the start before dragging up past the tented hospitality zone. It’s chased by the Paterberg which is short but overcompensates with a 20% slope and brutal stones.

The Koppenberg is the infamous climb that is now reserved only for the Ronde, no other spring classic uses it. All these mark the highlights of the course but there are small small roads, tight junctions and other points. Watch out for the Hotond-Kruisberg as it’s the literal highpoint of the race at 158m and often causes damage with just over 20km to go, it may not see the winning move but look for signs of fatigue.

The Finish: a final time up Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg combo and the gradual descent and then that long road into the outskirts of Oudenaarde for a flat finish. A determined chase behind can bring back any escapees but it relies on riders with energy left and the willingness to collaborate.

The Contenders

Tadej Pogačar and his UAE team know how to win this. He’s won the last two editions he’s started in the same manner. His team mates toil like commis with meat tenderisers, hammering the peloton with a pace that saps everyone for hours until Pogačar uses his comparative advantage on the Oude Kwaremont, the longest climb, to ride away. Easier said than done, especially as everyone is expecting the move. But this obliges others to make their moves before he does and expose themselves, notable in a spring when the likes of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert have gone solo only to be recaptured by the peloton. Florian Vermeersch has been very strong this season but likely to deliver the final blow to the peloton like Tim Wellens did for the team in the past but overall the team have a very strong squad that will try to control everything.

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Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) had been on the podium of every spring classic in Belgium he’d started since 2021 until last Sunday’s Wevelgem where he and Wout van Aert were up the road and looked likely to duel for the win… only to get caught. The anecdote could be telling as he was almost caught in last Sunday’s E3 race too, if only to suggest he’s not monopolising races right now, is his form dipping? If you like other stats then he’s on the eve of a fourth win in the Ronde, a feat unachieved so far and if he does it on Sunday, he’ll be the first to do the Omloop-Ronde double. Can get he ahead of Pogačar, or match him in the finale? He can master the course and his sprint and clarity of mind in the finish of a race are excellent.

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A surprise starter, the reverse April Fool’s by Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull) raises expectations. The co-ordinated media release earlier this week announcing his participation showed it’s all part of a plan, rather than being a late starter for the fun of it. His campaign even asked “Flanders are you ready?”, as opposed to him being ready. The form hasn’t looked scintillating, recently conceding two minutes to Jonas Vingegaard on his way to 6th overall in Catalunya. But what if this was the plan and he’s sacrificed climbing to be beefier for Sunday and his close sprint with Dorian Godon and the crosswind move with Vingegaard were the signals and not noise? His weakness is positioning in the hectic moments going into key points but has a team that’s been searching for a leader. His best point is he can win from anywhere, give him ten metres and he could be away for the day and his sprinting is now very strong.

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Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) is back to being a contender but how to win? He seems able to buy an option on the finish, and were he to arrive in the final kilometre with the names cited above already he may not be the first pick but he’d have a chance; similarly across a range of other scenarios especially as some day luck has to go his way, maybe it’ll be rivals who touch wheels on the Koppenberg and stall leaving him space? The dry conditions won’t help as they remove some randomness. The team are strong and have options with Christophe Laporte and Per Strand Hagenes but they’re difficult cards to play, their central case rests on getting Van Aert into a podium position.

Are there other contenders? It does feel like one of the four cited above is going to be on the top step of the podium. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) ought to be named among the best but his injury comeback has left him visibly short of form and the sense that he might need more time, that Roubaix suits more but he’s got nothing to lose.

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By now we’re into riders and indeed whole teams hoping to anticipate events and even then how to get, say, fifth place? Bahrain’s best rider in the classics has been Alec Segaert but this is a much hillier course than he’d like. By contrast Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) will prefer this but he’s making his cobbled classics debut and a top-10 would be reasonable. Uno-X have been active this spring and Jonas Abrahamsen could try to anticipate events.

Soudal-Quickstep have been more discreet this spring and this is a problem for the reset and refocus on the spring classics as if they haven’t won a semi-classic by now then it’s not going to be easier this weekend or next. Dylan van Baarle and Jasper Stuyven bring experience but these days being wise doesn’t count for what it used to. It still matters, Paul Magnier says he punctured in last Sunday’s Wevelgem because he didn’t pay attention to the course and slammed his wheel into a pothole.

Ineos lack a leader at the top of the team but have options, they’ll want to get ahead of matters and you can probably sort the rest of the teams by how early they’ll try to move right down to Flanders-Baloise and Burgos-Burgpellet-BH who’ll both want to have two riders or more in the morning move.

	Pogačar
	Van der Poel
	Van Aert, Evenepoel
	–
	Laporte, PSH, Pedersen, Abrahamsen, F Vermeersch

Weather: cloudy with a strong chance of light rain later on, 11°C. A westerly wind of 25km/h is sufficient to become tactical and even open up the bunch. It means a tailwind to the finish line after the Paterberg.

TV: live from start to finish on Sporza/Een for locals in Flanders, and Eurosport and Flobikes internationally. The start is at 10.00 CEST and the finish is forecast for 4.30pm CEST. Tune in around 3.30pm to get the penultimate Kwaremont-Paterberg combo and the only time up the Koppenberg.

As an aside there’s a new website coursedujour.com which lists or can email you each morning what races are on and where the TV coverage can be found. It looks useful. No affiliation but the creator David has helped check the software that runs this site.

Women’s Ronde
ProcyclingUK has a recommended preview with almost everything except the timings… the finish is due around 5.30pm CEST. Lotte Kopecky is the obvious pick with several contenders.

The post Ronde van Vlaanderen Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Dwaars door Vlaanderen is today, its name is literally “Across Flanders” only it covers a tiny portion of Flanders. Similarly this Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen doesn’t tour much of Flanders, instead it loops around a very small part of the region. As do many of the other spring classics.

The map above shows Belgium within the thick green national border and the Flanders-Wallonia border running east-west, as well as the circle of Brussels.

The red lines are the routes of all the events organised by Flanders Classics (Omloop Nieuwsblad, Ronde van Brugge, In Flanders Fields/Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Scheldeprijs, Ronde van Limburg, Brabantse Pijl with the last four using last year’s routes as the source data as this year’s races have yet to happen).

The other races are the independently run Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in dark purple, the Nokere Koerse is light purple while pink is the E3 Saxo Classic route, light blue for the Koksijde Classic and dark blue for the GP Monsére.

You might prefer to see each race in a different colour. But the point here is not to differentiate each course more to show how many overlap. It’s less a map and more a bowl of spaghetti. Trying different colours actually doesn’t work well because so many overlap.

As you can see a lot of Flanders isn’t visited by the major bike races, plenty of Flemish residents don’t exactly have a spring classic on their doorstep. The Scheldeprijs might be around Antwerp to the north but has plenty of the course in the Netherlands.

Look at the map again and this time there’s an added yellow rectangle. This measures 30km by 20km. Inside it sit most of the Omloop, Kuurne, Nokere, E3, Dwaars and Ronde routes. It’s here that sit many of the famous climbs, think of the Paterberg, Oude Kwaremont, Taaienberg and Molenberg.

The screenshot from Dwars door Vlaanderen today includes a white line, that’s the Nokere Koerse finish painted on the road from a few weeks ago. It’s why the guy with the “LUC” sign can appear so many times along the course of a race.

The image above zooms in on the same 30km by 20km zone. A lot of races within this area overlap. There can be cobbled sectors taken one direction that are reversed in another race but often there’s only one right way. Nobody wants to race down the Paterberg.

By themselves most of these climbs are modest, the Taaienberg can often be crucial but it is about 600m long and lasts just over a minute in these races. It’s the accumulation and distance that’s needed.

Geography means some races have few features to break up the peloton unless the wind is blowing. A sprint finish can be thrilling but the ride to get their can feel processional for TV viewers. Since the last decade many race organisers, including plenty outside of Flanders, have sought to add more obstacles and jeopardy in order to make the TV experience more lively.

So in Flanders organisers head for the hills and concoct a course designed to tackle as many climbs and cobbles as possible and most of these are in a relatively small area, sometimes branded the heuvelzone, the “hill zone”. The twisting and turning to achieve this compounds matters as races zig and zag through corners and junctions.

It used to be thought that learning the lie of the land was an advantage in racing, knowing where a road widened and allowed you to overtake before a key climb or cobbled sector could save energy. Now a lot of this lore has been mapped.

There’s now familiarity for riders and spectators alike. The current Omloop Nieuwsblad finale has the same route as the old Ronde. Meanwhile the current Ronde has the same Oude Kwaremont-Paterberg-finish in Oudenaarde since 2014 now and feels very much like a known quantity

Conclusion
Many of the Flemish classics take place in a small area and the same roads get criss-crossed? It’s no secret and obvious to many. But this post just puts all the Flemish classics onto the same map to visualise this.

The post Touring Flanders? first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Tadej Pogačar launches his sprint with 200m to go. Tom Pidcock looks to the right but there’s no room and he moves to the left and almost gets on terms but he’s half a length short as they throw their bikes to the line. After 289km there’s half a wheel it in.

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The early breakaway formed quickly, only for the lead vehicles to go off-course, taking the riders into parked traffic. Anecdotal, yes but a copycat move was allowed to go clear moments later which was notable because it showed how it suited everyone.

Like previous editions this was another “Noah’s Ark breakaway” with team mates going in two by two: two each from Movistar, Bardiani, Novo Nordisk and Polti-Malta, plus a lonely Picnic-PostNL rider in Alexey Faure-Prost.

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Behind Orluis Aular of Movistar and UAE’s Jan Christen crashed after about 30km, the latter breaking his collarbone. Given UAE were without Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narvaez because of injury did losing a key rider early give Pogačar thoughts it might not be his day? The gods were out to test him already.

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Alpecin-PremierTech’s Silvan Dillier led the chase with 285km to go and the Swiss Stakhanovite was seemingly on the front for the next 200km. Perhaps he looked back one or twice but there were no flicking elbows or other body language despite other teams getting a free ride. His work was solid but he was one against nine riders. The escapees began to gain time and they doubled their lead from three minutes to six on the Via Aurelia coastal road. UAE’s Domen Novak took over with just over 80km left.

Soon teams were riding in train formation to hold their leaders in position. Ineos had a collective crash but Filippo Ganna just avoided the trouble before the Capo Mele.

With the capes cleared, the breakaway was down to four as they passed the fountain in Imperia. Moments later on the way out of Oneglia Pogačar crashed. We’ll put the blame and inquisition aside as nobody seemed to make a grave fault. Pogačar was first to go down, sliding across the road and taking out others like a scythe through grass.

Normally a fall in Sanremo means game over. However if this was a disaster it wasn’t a catastrophe. Pogačar had the good fortune not to be injured and his bike was still rideable, unlike Wout van Aert’s machine. Up in seconds he had team mates ready to lead the chase. Plus if his clothing was ripped leaving his white shorts halfway to a sumo mawashi when viewed from the left he retained enough dignity to continue as the tail of the peloton rode away.

Van der Poel was also caught in the crash but lost less time and was in the first chase group. Pogačar was in the next group behind with Domen Nowak, Felix Großschartner and Florian Vermeersch burning themselves up to chase back through the convoy.

The breakaway was caught at the foot of the Cipressa just as Pogačar made it to the back. Back but a long way back, the TV caption had him at 17 seconds. There was no time to lose and Brandon McNulty led him through the group, the pair passing rivals like they were hobbyists in the Pogi Challenge. In just a kilometre they made it to the front. Suddenly the plan was back on. McNulty used up his last reserves and soon Isaac Del Toro appeared and accelerated hard to stretch out the group.

Pogačar attacked. Pidcock was right on his wheel. One wheel behind Filippo Ganna was in trouble, his head dipping and elbows jutting out like he was pushing an overloaded wheelbarrow as Van der Poel came around him. Mads Pedersen stomped on the pedals to stay in contact but blew in seconds.

In the space of 25 pedal strokes Pogačar was clear with Pidcock and Van der Poel. The rest were left repaying their oxygen debts and by Cipressa church tower the chasers were 25 seconds down.

There were strange moments of calm now. The Cipressa attack as theory was working in practice again and the trio began to collaborate, but the alliance was tentative. The tension rose as Lidl-Trek had numbers and Visma-LAB’s Victor Campenaerts joined in the pursuit and gap fell. The trio started to look back, often the prelude to surrender. The half minute cushion was reduced to a threadbare eight seconds at the foot of the Poggio.

The gap closed further. Excuse the low-fi graphics above but inside the red circle you can just see a speck of white casting shadow on the wall: Pogačar. In the blue circle is the front of the bunch and there’s about six seconds in it here, even less than the TV graphic suggests.

Pogačar rose up and accelerated. Pidcock followed but Van der Poel stayed seated and was now beaten. For a brief moment at least six motos were within 50 metres of the two leaders which helped, but behind who was left to chase? At the top of the Poggio the pair had 15 seconds on the 40 or so peloton with Van der Poel still in between. By the foot of the descent the two had 20 seconds. Pogačar was doing most of the work, Pidcock seemingly all in for the win rather than guaranteeing second place by sharing the work.

Andrea Bagioli did a final pull in the streets of Sanremo for the peloton which helped catch Van der Poel. By now there was almost nobody left to chase. Sensing this Wout van Aert attacked with 1.5km to go and started to close in.

Pidcock flicked his elbow before the flamme rouge and a Pogačar came through to ensure they stayed away and Pidcock sat on. Van Aert was closing in and each time Pogačar glanced back he seemed to check the incoming Belgian more than Pidcock on his wheel.

With 200m to go Pogačar looked over his left shoulder one last time then launched his sprint. Pidcock seemed to point his front wheel right but there was little room by the barriers. He began to get on terms with Pogačar with 50m to go but his front wheel was weaving in a ragged sprint while Pogačar was powering straight and as both lunged it was Pogačar who won by half a wheel.

The Verdict
This time the action came even earlier than the Cipressa with Pogačar’s crash and chase. Milan-Sanremo was this blog’s first pick among the highlights of last season and 2026 topped it, a thriller with added layers of tension and drama.

Milan-Sanremo is famous for the trance-like finish. It may never reach boiling point from the start like a golden Tour stage could, nor even with 100km to go like a vintage Paris-Roubaix. But the intensity of the final 35km was as good as it gets because so much was happening, much of it with the most slender of margins.

Pogačar as the strongest rider on the day and winning may not sound like news. This was different, a frenetic finale. Replay the final kilometre in a simulation and Pidcock could have won and his distant stare on the podium seemed to suggest he knew it. This gave suspense all the way to the line, especially as Pidcock was not sharing the work 50-50 and so might have something left. The 30 second advantage on the Cipressa was reduced to less than ten seconds by the Poggio and Van Aert was just four seconds behind by the finish.

Pogačar’s crash defined the day. Without it maybe he could have gone solo over the Cipressa? However strong that would have been too easy. Philippe Brunel wrote for L’Equipe for 40 years, becoming the lead cycling writer. Having seen Merckx, Hinault et al he often honed his definition of a champion and it someone who can win against the odds, able to turn an unfavourable situation to their advantage and win from it.

Pogačar’s crash wasn’t ruinous in a race where the smallest mishaps and hesitations often define the outcome but his chances did look cooked. Is it his greatest win? That’s subjective, the Zürich Worlds of 2024 was audacious for attacking with 100km to go; he monopolised the 2024 Tour de France; a Liege-Bastogne-Liege win was dedicated to the memorial of Urska Zigart’s mother. Sanremo seemed to mean plenty and despite 110 career wins with five grand tours and now an 11th Monument for once he looked stunned and even tearful.

Many a rider living on the Côte d’Azur has been lured to the Poggio hundreds of times, condemned to climb it like Sisyphus while their dreams up its slopes. Most – think of Peter Sagan, Caleb Ewan or Michael Matthews – try and never win. This is a deliverance for Pogačar who no longer has to go back; even if he was that vindictive there’s no realistic way to overhaul Merckx’s seven wins. This brings a touch of melancholy here for who else is willing to plunge the detonator on the Cipressa next year?

Pro cycling has the habit of asking what a rider can do next. Win, and usually before the finish arch has been dismantled, the triumph is banked and questions tun to “what can you do next?”. A fifth Tour de France awaits and one day there’s the Vuelta and Olympics to collect, goals that no matter how special feel expected. The only question left is whether he can really win Paris-Roubaix?

The post The Moment Milan-Sanremo Was Won first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The charm of bike racing is that the strongest rider does not always win. Skill, tactics and sheer good luck play a role. Especially in Milan-Sanremo.

The race has evolved over the years and now in its 117th edition there is a change. Tadej Pogačar’s moves on the Cipressa have opened up the race and created a new version where the rules, scenarios and habits of recent years have been revised but the new script is not settled. If he goes again should rivals follow or wait. Stick or twist?

The Course
The same and why change a winning formula? While some races keep adding more climbs or cobbles, the balance here feels perfect as it theoretically allows everyone a shot at glory, it’s gone to grand tour winners and sprinters this century. But of late the race has excluded the pure sprinters, it is probably beyond the reach of a Mark Cavendish today, or Tim Merlier were he to start today.

There’s 125km on the Pianura Padana, past rice fields and across the plains to Ovada. Here the Turchino pass starts. The race takes the old road up and the average gradient is a measly 1.5% if you like your stats, if you prefer anecdotes a regular railway runs alongside. But there are some steeper moments and at it kicks up at the top.

The descent is different: shorter, steeper and with plenty of hairpin bends to describe the technical aspect. There’s a different feel too, the way up was cold and austere, the descent sashays down to a Mediterranean playground of palm trees, beaches and cruise liners.

Once on the coastal road there’s often a last moment to go back to the team car or stop by the road to remove clothing. There’s 80km to the first of the three capi, the capes where the road rises away from the beaches to tackle headlands. Positioning counts here as riders jostle for position and use up energy. The third one, the Capo Berta is the hardest, over a kilometre at 7-8%. There’s only 10km to the Cipressa.

The Cipressa is the hardest climb of the day, compounded by the 261km that has preceded it. Listed as 4.1% gradient for 5.6km it’s really over 5% for nearly 4km and with some 6-7% parts on a twisting road that helps to line out the peloton such that a rider in 40th place is a long way back measured by time. It flattens out for a balcony section before the village of Cipressa and the pinch point at the top. The descent is tricky in places, especially for riders on the limit. Then comes nine kilometres back on the Via Aurelia.

The Poggio is less steep and the freshly-surfaced early ramps are connected by corners where riders often dab the brakes because they’re going up so fast. Two thirds of the way up and the road straightens out and the steepest part comes, this has often been the moneytime moment where the outcome is decided in a few pedal strokes

It’s downhill into Sanremo. By itself it’s not the most difficult descent but now it’s tricky descent because of the slender margins, nobody can afford to let a rival take a bike length. It’s not the flowing downhill Super-G schuss, many of the bends require riders to power out of the exit so it suits beefy riders as much as daredevils.

Once clear the last ramp there are 2.2km to the finish.

The Contenders

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is the first pick. He won it in 2023 and 2025 and last year showed range, experience and cunning to beat Tadej Pogačar: tracking him on the Cipressa, matching him on the Poggio and then tucking him away in the sprint. This year looks similar but how much can we extrapolate from Tirreno-Adriatico where he took two stages, the first looked effortless, the second more than effortful? If Pogačar goes into the Cipressa in a better position than last year then overcoming his anaerobic torture here is a big ask.

His team will take responsibility early on and this brings us to Jasper Philipsen who won in between Van der Poel’s two wins. He’s not looked so sparkling this season but apparently it’s all part of a plan where he’s sacrificed a little top speed to become more versatile. His win in this week’s Nokere Koerse hints at this, winning the uphill sprint. Parlaying this into the Cipressa-Poggio combo is more than a leap, it’s a triple jump but it makes him a contender. He also boosts Van der Poel’s chances as he can mark rivals who don’t have a sprinter….

Solo or bust for Tadej Pogačar (UAE)? He’s tried a Cipressa attack two years in a row. The first fizzled out, the second got him an option on the win, only to be out-sprinted by Van der Poel. Each time he’s had trouble with positioning going in the climb so if his team can deliver him among the first five riders this time he’ll have an advantage. Third time lucky? Now we’ll see if he drop the field and go solo to the finish. Easy, eh? Everyone bracing for this move and were he to shed everyone up the Cipressa and eek out a few more seconds on the descent there’s still 18km to go. Yet if he tries to encourage others to go with him in the move then his chances of being beaten rise; unless he can lure them and then distance them on the Poggio. To add to the “easier said than done” palimpsest the weather forecast now has a mild headwind in the finish which benefits a group more than a solo rider but only if the chasers are able to get organised and have the numbers to work. Pogačar could sit tight and go all in on the Poggio instead but this forsakes his comparative advantage.

Isaac Del Toro can join him on the attack. The Mexican is in form having won Tirreno-Adriatico and has taken plenty of one day races on the Italian calendar already. Normally when Pogačar starts it’s all in for him on the team and like we saw in the Strade Bianche Del Toro can be deployed to mark rivals.

Italians tune for Sanremo every spring… the music festival where an Italian is guaranteed to win. Now we’ll see if Filippo Ganna (Ineos) can deliver a crowd-pleaser. He has been runner-up twice, but how to win? The Cipressa represents his climbing limit and while there’s huge power for a sprint, there are faster riders. A late attack in the streets of Sanremo might be his best route but assumes he is there and has the energy left to pull this off. His predecessor Fabian Cancellara made a habit of these finisseur moves, Ganna’s only had one World Tour level road race win, the Giro stage in 2020 but pull it off and like this year’s song, it’ll be Per sempre si or “Forever yes”. Axel Laurance and Ben Turner are sprint cards to play.

Visma-LAB are without Matthew Brennan, an ace sprint card. A win for Wout van Aert would be a fairy tale given the form of late but it’s not the story he’s trying to write, his goals are in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix but nobody is going to turn it down here. Christophe Laporte ought to be an archetypal rider for this race but has yet to finish in the top-10. Matteo Jorgenson is a wildcard to play and can probably count on being delivered into the Cipressa but in his own words he can’t really sprint.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) won Milano-Torino in the week, he jumped clear on the Superga for the win and was clearly the best but a show of force when more is needed today. He’s not been in the top-10 before but fits the bill and can win the sprint from a small group. Plus he almost won two years ago with a late move.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is no fan of this race as he doesn’t like the long, processional wait. He starts on his comeback from a broken wrist, form unknown but team mate Giulio Ciccone could be a surprise.

Matej Mohorič (Bahrain) is not on many people’s radar and he probably likes that.

Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) crashed hard in Tirenno-Adriatico but is a contender thanks to his ability to deliver a long sprint at the end of a hilly day.

Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) tried to follow Pogačar last year but could not hold on for the final metres of the Cipressa, any gain on this might give him more of an option but as good as he is and the form looks sharp, the rivals look superior.

A bunch sprint? As the chart shows there’s never a field sprint and even large groups over a decade ago where around thirty riders. So this makes it tough for sprinters like Tobias Lund (Decathlon-CMA CGM) even if he’s enjoying an excellent season. So while Luke Lamperti (EF), Magnus Cort (Uno-X), Laurence Pithie (RedBull) or especially Andrea Vendrame (Jayco) are four more to pick among forty more contenders their chances are slim given the competition already cited and as finely balanced as the race may be it is not generating many surprise winners and upsets of late.

	Mathieu van der Poel
	Pogačar
	Ganna, Philipsen
	Del Toro, Pidcock
	Van Aert, Laporte, Magnier

Weather (updated Saturday): 5°C at the start in Pavia but sunny with a light tailwind. Later a milder 17°C along the coast where the gentle tailwind from the NE will switch to a SW headwind within the final 50km but only just, 7-10km/h.

A headwind can put a lid on things but the forecast seems uncertain, and if there is a headwind it’ll be very slight.

TV: the start is at 10.10am and the finish is at 4.55pm CET. It’s live on RAI for locals and VPN users, channel-hoping from RAI Sport to RAI2 at 2.00pm. Otherwise it’s on Eurosport, Flobikes and SBS for English-speaking coverage, the latter being an option for VPN users too.

Should you watch from the start? Look to see which teams send riders in the early breakaway. As a rule the earlier you tune in the more frenetic the finale feels and you can have it playing in the background all day.

Albenga comes with with 65km to go and is where the fight for position turns into a combat sport, it’s around 3.20pm.

Women’s Sanremo: there’s more to watch with the finish at 2.30pm CET. The obvious pick is Lorena Wiebes who won last year and hasn’t been beaten in a sprint since the year before that to the point where confident of this monopoly she’s been working on versatility so should hope to resist attacks but all the more reason for teams not hypnotised by her to try on the Cipressa. For a more thorough preview, visit ProCyclingUK.com.

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