World Champion Tadej Pogačar has won the Tour of Flanders for a second time after a ding-dong battle with spring rival Mathieu van der Poel.
The Slovenian had tried over-and-over to distance the Dutchman but Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) had stuck to his wheel throughout until Pogačar finally snapped the elastic on the penultimate climb of the day.
He had launched his first assault on the race’s second ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, but it was his acceleration at the start of the third ascent when Pogačar swiftly built a gap of over 10 seconds. He proceeded to stretch it all the way to the line to eventually win by 1.01.
His win marked the third time in a row that the monument has been won by a solo rider.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) won the sprint behind Pogačar for second place with Van der Poel rounding out the podium.
Pogačar’s victory was a reversal of his fortunes last month at Milan San Remo when he was third in a three-up sprint won by Van der Poel. The UAE Emirates leader has now won three of the four races he’s contested in 2025 with wins at Strade Bianche and the UAE Tour.
The result might have been perfect but the build up was anything but with UAE Emirates seeing three of their riders caught in a crash in the early stages.
Pogačar told TNT Sports: “I cannot be more proud of the team and how we raced today given we had some bad luck.
“I’m just so happy to win this race in this jersey,” he said while gesturing to his white and rainbow-striped skin suit.
The result today marks Pogačar out as a potential favourite for next Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix, despite the fact he’s never ridden the race before.
“Roubaix is a completely different race,” he told TNT. “I will accept the challenge and try and do a good race. Flanders suits me better but Roubaix is a very hard race and with the shape I have now I’ll give it a try.”
How it happened
The early break took just under 40km on the roads out of Bruges to establish itself and comprised Elmar Reinders (Team Jayco AlUla), Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana), Connor Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Sean Flynn (Team Picnic PostNL), Timo Roosen (Team Picnic PostNL), Rory Townsend (Q36.5), Marco Haller (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders-Baloise).
By the time the race approached the first of the day’s cobbled climbs, the Oude Kwaremont, the gap had stretched out to over four minutes.
A crash on a seemingly innocuous stretch of wide straight tarmac with 126km to go took down a bevy of riders including John Degenkolb (Team Picnic PostNL), who was clearly in pain and would not continue. Multiple Alpecin-Deceuninck riders including team leader Mathieu van der Poel as well as three UAE Emirates riders.
Soon after, with pre-race favourite Van der Poel chasing the race became strung out on the Eikenberg under pressure from Jonas Abrahamson (Uno-X), leaving the Dutchman with a big effort to get back to the sharp end of the peloton. By 118km to go though he’d resumed a position in the first few wheels.
As the peloton hit the Kwaremont cobbles for a second time, with 55km to race, Pogačar made his move accelerating off the front. But he was marked by Wout van Aert, his Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Matteo Jorgenson, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). But as they rounded the corner onto the Paterberg the peloton caught them again.
The regrouping was short-lived though because Van der Poel attacked with Pogačar in his wheel initially distancing the other favourites before they recovered over the top of the climb.
Pogačar attacked repeatedly before he eventually distance Van Aert on Taaienberg leaving just the Slovenian Pedersen and Van der Poel up front.
On the Oude Kruisberg, more pressing from Pogačar distanced Pedersen leaving just the two pre-race favourites alone out front.
But on the descent to the bottom of the Kwaremont Van Aert, Pedersen and Pedersen’s team-mate Jasper Stuyven caught back up to the front two. Then Van Aert, likely anticipating an attack from the others on the final ascent of the Kwaremont, went early opening a sizable gap. But as the cobbles started Pogačar caught and passed Van Aert and for the first time in the race moved clear of Van der Poel.
His gap quickly yawned out but with Van Aert chasing it stabilised around 12 seconds by the time they reached the top and headed to the Paterberg. As they crossed the top of the steep final climb the Slovenian had 24 seconds in hand.
But as the race headed into a headwind the group of four behind still had a notional advantage but they were unable to match the World Champion and he kept stretching his lead all the way to the line.
Stuyven led-out the sprint for second and his team-mate Pedersen rewarded him by winning it with Van der Poel behind taking third on the podium.
Results: Tour of Flanders 2025 (269km)
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Emirates, in 5:58:41
2. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, +1:01
3. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck
4. Wout Van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, at s.t.
5. Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Lidl-Trek, +1:04
6. Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:51
7. Stefan Küng (Sui) Gorupama-FDJ, +1:53
8. Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers, +2:19
9. Iván García Cortina (Esp) Movistar
10. Davide Ballerini (Ita) XDS Astana, at s.t.
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