The Flemish Ardennes is the kind of place where a misstep can quickly spiral into a mistake. If Tadej Pogačar didn’t know that before, he certainly realised as much after his first race in the area in the 2022 Dwars door Vlaanderen.
When the Slovenian was loose in his positioning ahead of Berg Ten Houte that afternoon, Mathieu van der Poel didn’t need a second invitation to spark the winning move. Pogačar, meanwhile, would never see the front of the race again, instead spending the next 70km in a ferocious but ultimately futile chase amid the lonesome lanes and steeples of Flanders. He would reach Waregem over two minutes down in 10th place. Welcome to the neighbourhood.
