He did it again! Mathieu van der Poel sprinted to victory in the Tour of Flanders cobbled classic for the second time. The first victory of “De Ronde” was in 2020.
The Alpecin-FENIX Dutch rider crossed first the finish line in Oudenaarde, Belgium, ahead of Dyland van Baarle, Valentin Madous and Tadej Pogacar. Van der Poel, who only began his 2022 season at Milano-San Remo two weeks ago, won the 273-kilometer one-day classic with a time of 6 hours, 18 minutes and 30 seconds thanks to a powerful final sprint.
He described as “incredible” to win his second Tour of Flanders. “I worked so hard for this one. At first, it wasn’t even sure if I would get to the Classics and to win is incredible. They were coming really fast from behind, so I decided to sprint from far out. It was amazing that Pogacar was busy with me and not with the others coming back. It was a bit of a shock to see it play out like that.”
The Alpecin-FENIX captain is definitively back to his standard performance after an off season due to a back injury. The best is yet to come!
