Mathieu van der Poel Survives Botched Chase to Win E3 Saxo Classic

Mathieu van der Poel did what everyone expected and detonated the E3 Saxo Classic with a trademark long-range attack on the Paterberg to rip the race apart with 40km to go.

What wasn’t expected is how close a determined chase pushed the Dutch superstar all the way to the final kilometer in a wild finale that will leave everyone wondering how he escaped with the win.

After carrying a one-minute lead over Oude Kwaremont, MVDP looked gone, baby, gone.

That is, until Stefan Dewulf, Florian Vermeersch, Jonas Abrahamsen, and Per Strand Hagenes linked up and refused to buckle in a gripping 15km chase that went down to the wire.

After a gripping pursuit, the quartet pulled within 10 meters to the Dutch superstar just under the red kite but somehow didn’t finish off the job.

Instead of reeling him in, they started to look at each other.

That’s all Van der Poel needed to pull off the surprising way to win the “mini Flanders.”

“At a certain moment I didn’t believe it anymore. They almost caught me with 1km to go, but I didn’t want to sprint against them, so I gave it everything,” Van der Poel said. “In the end, I made it, but it cost blood, sweat, and tears.”

The chasing four did the improbable to reel in MVDP, but no one wanted to take the final pull to finish off the job, and risk losing the podium.

Instead, they opened the door for the Dutch ace to deliver the stunning victory.

“It cost a lot of energy,” Van der Poel said. “With a bit more than 1km to go, the legs were not feeling good anymore, and I saw they were close. I knew if I waited, I would be fifth, because I didn’t have the legs anymore to do a sprint.”

Van der Poel countered and delivered the three-peat in a way no one could have expected.

Taaienberg split

Things went to script all day long in the brutal race to open up Flanders “Holy Week” that carries into next weekend’s Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Van der Poel pried open the race on the Taaienberg, about 70km from the finish, the cobbled launchpad where Tom Boonen so often lit the fuse.

Two groups were already up the road, but all eyes locked on MVDP as the favorites hit the base.

Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step) led the “bigs” onto the cobbled climb, but Van der Poel was sneaky on the wheel of Tim Van Dyjke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

Van der Poel and Van Dijke opened a gap over a reduced favorites group featuring Christophe Laporte, Mads Pedersen and others. The race was on.

The duo bridged to the second break, triggering panic behind as the chase hesitated.

He attacked again out of the group at the Boigneberg at 64km to go, a sharp paved climb, and he was alone to chase the leading break heading toward the Eikenberg.

Paterberg attack

Things were still going to the super-hero script.

MVDP continued to power alone, gapping everyone and narrowing in on the leaders, now appearing like deer in the headlights.

Without Pogačar or Van Aert in the bunch, this was Van der Poel’s race to lose.

So far, everything was going to plan as he switched into solo beast mode.

He surged over the Kapelberg to sweep up the leaders and hit the Paterberg-Oude Kwaremont double with the race already within his grasp. The gap to the peloton stretched beyond 1:10 and growing.

Van der Poel dropped the hammer on the Paterberg to gap the early attackers for good, and soloed away with about 41km to go.

Behind it was a race for leftovers. Or so it seemed.

Down to the wire

Stan Dewulf led the survivors of the early break, with Magnus Sheffield and Antonio Morgado leading the best of the rest up the Oude Kwaremont at about 1:10 back.

Tibor Del Grosso marked the wheels for his Alpecin-Premier Tech leader as Pedersen and others tried to organize a chase.

From there, it was a 35km individual time trial for MVDP.

Something happened that no one’s seen for a long time. Van der Poel looked human. Buffeting winds and a hand injury didn’t help, but Van der Poel wasn’t justing riding away with this one.

Dewulf found company with Hagenes, Vermeersch, and Abrahamsen and they chipped away at 47 seconds.

The final cobbles at Varent led into the final climb at Tiegemberg, then it was 19km to the line.

Van der Poel was nursing his lead at about 40 seconds to the chasers, but the big effort started to pay on the long, flat run back toward the finish.

Things got interesting as the gap started to come down to the four determined chasers, with a revitalized group coming behind very fast.

With 8km to go, the gap was down to 18 seconds.

The Dutchman looked vulnerable, but the chasers didn’t finish him off.

Finish-line comments suggested that everyone in the chase group was thinking more about saving their legs for the podium than to bring back Van der Poel.

That hesitation was all he needed to deliver the win everyone expected, just not in the way that anyone saw coming.

E3 Saxo Classic results