This year's Tour of Flanders may have had the most predictable of winners, but by his own admission, the rider who took the runner-up's spot, Luca Mozzato (Arkea-B&B Hotels) was in no way anticipating his own dramatically successful race.
“It’s a result that exceeds my expectations," said Mozzato in a team statement. "If someone had said to me this morning, ‘you’re going to be in the top 20’, I’d have been happy, and ‘in the top 10’ I’d have signed up straight away. But on the podium…"
The 26 year old headed toward Oudenaarde with a group of eight that swept up the break of Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education at the last moment. Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), who was later relegated to 11th, launched the sprint but Mozzato jumped from behind the Australian to cross the line just ahead to claim second.
"In my head, the objective was to get over as many climbs as possible in the first group by smoothing out my efforts," said Mozzato. "And that paid off in the final, because in the last 30 or 40 kilometres, I was in pretty good shape. It was a race where everyone finished ‘cooked’."
Mozzato had certainly shown he was coming into the second Monument of the season with some powerful form. He started March with an impressive sprint victory at Bredene Koksijde Classic and then delivered a run of results inside or close to the top 20, including a tenth at Classic Brugge-De Panne. Still, second place at once of the biggest races on the calendar was a leap beyond the rider and WorldTour team's most optimistic expectations.
“We need to immortalise this moment! This first podium on a Monument, it has value," said elated Arkea-B&B Hotels general manager Emmanuel Hubert. "The Tour of Flanders is one of the most beautiful classics in the world. For Luca, second place is a very fine performance.
"He’s a brave man, a rider who ‘does the job’ as it should be done. He knows how to exploit everything to the millimetre. More generally, this performance also shows that the Arkea-B&B Hotels team is capable of competing at the highest level.”
It is also a performance which means Mozzato – a rider Arkea snapped up from the collapsing B&B Hotels team at the end of 2022 – will be considered in a whole new light. Not only was this a podium at a Monument but also at a brutal edition of the race, with three-time winner Van der Poel having described it as the 'hardest one I've ever ridden'.
"I think it will take some time to believe in it and to realize it," Mozzato said of his podium in a La Gazzetta dello Sport report. "I'm very happy, I think it's my best performance ever."
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