Wearing his rainbow jersey, Mathieu van der Poel emerged victorious in the Tour of Flanders for the third time. The world champion launched the decisive attack on the Koppenberg 45 kilometers from the finish and held on until the end to win a great victory.
Second place, surprisingly, went to the Italian Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who won the duel for second place against the German Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates), who had to settle for third place.
The 108th edition of the second monument of the year counted 270.8 kilometers that included seventeen hills and seven cobbled sections. The three passes over the Oude Kwaremont, the last two immediately followed by the Paterberg, were undoubtedly the main obstacles.
The battle to put together the escape of the day was tough. After about 20 kilometers, a leading group of eight broke away, including Bert Van Lerberghe (Soudal Quick-Step), Luke Durbridge (Jayco AlUla), Elmar Reinders (Jayco AlUla), Damien Touzé (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Lionel Taminiaux (Lotto Dstny), Stanislaw Aniolkowski (Cofidis), David Dekker (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Jelle Vermoote (Bingoal WB).
The chase was assumed by Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lidl-Trek at the service of leaders Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen. Surprisingly, the first counterattack was from Axel Laurence, but Visma | Lease a Bike reacted quickly with Matteo Jorgenson.
Once again it was Pedersen who accelerated, this time with Jorgenson and Van der Poel at his wheel, but a dangerous situation arose for the world champion. A group including Pedersen, Dylan van Baarle, Tiesj Benoot, Nils Politt and Oliver Naesen left. The MVDP troops did not let the gap become too big, so Van der Poel attacked at the Valkenberg.
Then, Alpecin-Deceuninck opted for control and kept everything according to plan. Stefan Küng, who had an unfortunate accident with spectators, was able to return. Rain and slippery conditions made the race more nervy in the run-up to the second climb of the Oude Kwaremont.
Later Oier Lazkano accelerated at the Kwaremont, after which Van der Poel closed the gap on Pedersen and Vermeersch and overtook them. At the top, only Pedersen, Lazkano, Dylan Teuns, Laurence Pithie and Tim Wellens were still behind the world champion.
At the closing, Van der Poel endured boos and a shower of beer, but in the end nothing stood in the way of his third victory in the Tour of Flanders, a race he also won in 2020 and 2022.
Ronde van Vlaanderen – Tour des Flandres ME 2024 (1.UWT)
Ranking General (270,8 km)
| 1 | Mathieu van der Poel | Alpecin – Deceuninck | 6:05:17 |
| 2 | Luca Mozzato | Arkéa – B&B Hotels | 1:02 |
| 3 | Nils Politt | UAE Team Emirates | ,, |
| 4 | Mikkel Bjerg | UAE Team Emirates | ,, |
| 5 | António Morgado | UAE Team Emirates | ,, |
| 6 | Magnus Sheffield | INEOS Grenadiers | ,, |
| 7 | Oliver Naesen | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | ,, |
| 8 | Dylan Teuns | Israel – Premier Tech | ,, |
| 9 | Alberto Bettiol | EF Education – EasyPost | ,, |
| 10 | Toms Skujiņš | Lidl – Trek | ,, |
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico