Mystery Solved: Here’s What Was Sticking Out of Pogačar’s Kit at Flanders

What was fluttering out Tadej Pogačar‘s jersey during Sunday’s implosion on the Molenberg at the Tour of Flanders?

No, he wasn’t sitting down for some of Belgium’s famous ribs, and it wasn’t some marginal-gains wizardry. It turns out it was something much simpler.

Arm warmers, that’s all.

Flanders delivered its usual chaos across 278km. The race was punctuated by cold winds, brief showers, and then flashes of sun.

Riders were constantly adapting to the conditions, but once the race ignited with more than 100km to go, there was no chance to drift back to the car and ditch layers.

So Pogačar simply stuffed them into his jersey.

The bulge and flapping cloth sparked online chatter, but there was no secret tech behind it this time.

“It was his arm warmers,” teammate Florian Vermeersch told Sporza. “When it rained, I asked if Tadej wanted mine, but he had some himself.”

The world No. 1 is ready for everything.

More Flanders victims

The Koppenberg lived up to its menacing reputation Sunday, with nasty crashes before and after the hulking monster in the women’s and men’s races.

In the women’s race, Kim Le Court Pienaar and Marlen Reusser were the biggest casualties.

Le Court Pienaar suffered a fractured wrist and is set for surgery, and is ruled out of the Ardennes classics.

Reusser came off worse, with the Movistar Team captain sustaining a fracture to a lumbar vertebra, with the team putting no timeline on her return.

The men’s race also saw its unfortunate crashes, with Matteo Trentin and Magnus Sheffield crashing out after coming off the Koppenberg.

No Roubaix for Remco — yet (we think)

Remco Evenepoel won’t be lining up at Paris-Roubaix this weekend despite a podium debut at the Tour of Flanders.

The Olympic champion lit up De Ronde with third place and hinted he’d like to race the Hell of the North someday.

“I’ll leave an opening,” Evenepoel said on Sporza. “I think others may have already closed the door completely. We’ll have to talk about it anyway.”

For now, that door stays firmly shut.

Team officials at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe said Evenepoel will stick to his original roadmap with the Ardennes.

That means the Amstel Gold Race on April 19 is next, followed by Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with a possible start at La Flèche Wallonne still under consideration.

Or maybe there will be another final-hour reversal, like the team’s April Fools Flanders release that seemed to rub some the wrong way.

Fans Roar for Wout

There’s been some amazing footage making the rounds from Sunday’s Flanders.

Like this, this, and this.

Perhaps nothing was as impressive as the fans chanting Wout van Aert’s name on what looked like the Paterberg on the final climbing sector of the race.

Fans sang out his name until he came barreling past to finish fourth, just off the podium. Moving stuff.