After his display of supreme dominance at the E3 Classic on Friday, much of the talk going into Gent-Wevelgem was around whether or not Mathieu van der Poel was beatable. Last year, the question was how do you disrupt the winning machine that was Visma-Lease a Bike. This year, it's the Classics winning double act of Jasper Philipsen and the reigning world champion.
Mads Pedersen and his teammates answered that question in some style last weekend. It had been evident that Lidl-Trek had a battle plan in place for the Classics. Signs of it coming to life were clear at Milan-San Remo, it was fine tuned at E3, and it came together perfectly on Sunday.
