© BELGIUM
Following Tadej Pogacar at La Redoute was too ambitious, even for Mathieu van der Poel, the man of the spring. The world champion had no chance of victory in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with the presence of the Slovenian all-rounder, but he did not let third place slip away. Van der Poel looked back on ‘La Doyenne’ with satisfaction, but also had “food for thought”.
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Liège-Bastogne-Liège did not start ideally for Van der Poel. The Dutchman was held up by the massive crash at the beginning of the race and so he had to chase with 95 kilometers to go. Because UAE Team Emirates, Pogacar’s team, did not wait and pushed ahead. “I lowered myself to take off my leg warmer and glove. After that it was time to chase and when I connected again, the best was over,” Van der Poel said afterwards.
“I don’t really know how I finally managed to get on the podium,” continued the world champion, who was satisfied with his third place in Liège, but also received a reality check. “Now I understand why they say that Liège-Bastogne-Liège is difficult to combine with the cobbled classics. The decompression after the Ronde and Roubaix turned out to be greater than expected, but I have to admit that even with the best legs I could not have followed Pogacar on La Redoute.”
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“That provides food for thought for the future. To win here if Tadej is also at the start, that will be very difficult and perhaps even impossible.”
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– 2024-04-21 18:44:46
