Perhaps the most enduring image of the cycling season so far is Mathieu van der Poel standing on the finish line of the Tour of Flanders with mud splattered down his crisp, white world champion’s jersey, raising his bike to the sky like an offering to the gods. Here was a rider so utterly dominant over a world-class field that he had time to hop off for some showmanship, and somehow still with the strength to lift his bike like paper after such a brutal ride.
It was, as it turned out, his last drop of energy.
