The most beautiful moment of the Tour of Flanders was not shown on TV yesterday, but was captured by the French photographer Patrick Brunt. He was behind the finish line and filmed the moment when Mathieu Van der Poel and Wout van Aert embrace each other after an exciting battle.
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Whirling over the line, Wout van Aert puts his arm around the shoulder of eternal rival Mathieu van der Poel. ‘I think you will win’, says Van der Poel, still unsure about the end of the millimeter sprint at the time. ‘I don’t think so,’ answers Van Aert. It is our fellow countryman who ultimately turns out to be right.
With that hug it was also possible to immediately draw a line under the fierce exchange of words between the two in the run-up to the Tour of Flanders that had arisen after Ghent-Wevelgem (read more). Van Aert and Van der Poel are rivals on the bike, but mutual respect is great. This was also evident from Van Aert’s sporty reaction immediately after the Tour. “Simple, Mathieu was just that little bit stronger.”
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