After last season's Tour of Flanders, riders called Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) an "alien" after his solo victory. Today at the E3 Saxo Classic, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) said he was defeated only by a "monster", as he rode to a valiant second place behind the flying Dutchman.
Pedersen was the best of the rest as the Belgian Cobbled racing season got into full swing on Friday, opening up the racing first on the Taaienberg with 80km to go before being the last to hold Van der Poel's wheel before he ultimately went away solo on the Oude Kwaremont to defend his title.
