After all the talk about Visma-Lease a Bike’s ‘super team’ heading into the Classics, it was Lidl-Trek that were the best outfit at E3 Saxo Classic, owning pole position heading into the crucial Taaienberg and landing four riders in the top 11 finishers.
They couldn’t quite overcome the power of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) as the Dutchman surged away on the Paterberg to take victory solo. But Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) took a brilliant second ahead of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) after bridging to his compatriot in the final five kilometres and outsprinting him to the line in Harelbeke.
A result not to be sniffed at with the World Champion “above everyone else” according to Stuyven and simply “on another level” in the words of sports director Grégory Rast as he spoke to Het Nieuwsblad and Cyclingnews after the finish.
“I’m not disappointed here. Mathieu was racing on another level. This is the reality, and it was never our race,” said Rast.
“If you look at the past, we were never performing here super well, at least for a long time, we are really, really happy with the second place of Jasper [Styuven]."
Stuyven also said that he was pleased with what he felt was a strong performance. “Of course, I’m very happy. I think it's a very nice result. I think, as a team, we rode a super strong race. We were there, we were present. Of course, you have Mathieu who was above everyone else today but finishing second on the podium is very satisfying.”
This was the first time Lidl-Trek had been in the top 10 at E3 since 2018, when it was Stuyven again who was their top performer. Today, his tactics were pretty spot-on, getting away from the faltering five-man group, which contained Van Aert’s teammate Matteo Jorgenson, to ensure he could catch Van Aert and overhaul him in time.
It was just another example of the 31-year-old Belgian’s form returning to the top level after he worked brilliantly for Mads Pedersen at Milan-San Remo and finished in the top 10 of both races at Opening Weekend.
“It's not only his shape, but his morale is on top. He showed he was there in Milan-San Remo and OK, he was not there in Opening Weekend - he missed the big split and after he had a bad moment but this can happen, he’s not a robot,” Rast said.
“We believe in him and today I’m really happy for him, even for a second place. We want to win and we want to try to win but the way we raced today was almost the maximum.”
There was certainly little else the American team could’ve done in the deciding final 80km of racing in Belgium as they found perfect formation to launch attacks with Alex Kirsch and Toms Skujiņš also on top form at the front of the train before Pedersen and Stuyven at different points tried to get away solo.
With the supermarket coming on board as a new title sponsor at last year’s Tour, Lidl-Trek have big ambitions to build themselves up to the same ‘super team’ realms alongside Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates. Rast was delighted with how they rode together as a team despite not being able to beat Van der Poel.
“Not only this [Stuyven] but also how the rest of the team was riding: everybody did their work, everybody did their lead-out to the most famous points,” Rast said. “We were always in the game, and that is most important for me.”
So it was an overall satisfying day with second, eighth, tenth and eleventh all secured for the quartet that characterised much of the closing phase of racing. They will now head into Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders with great confidence and two very strong options.
Asked if he was satisfied, Rast assured “Really, Yes. This is not our race and especially everybody looks at Mads normally and this is not his favourite race. I think he likes much more Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem and Roubaix - these are the races where I think he has a better chance.
“I think now we have Jasper, who is fantastic, and Mads prefers the other races - he was struggling a lot in E3, but he will be good with two riders.”
The Dane stated at the beginning of the season that a Monument was again his biggest goal for the upcoming season having already proven himself as a former World Champion and at all three Grand Tours. But Rast was still realistic with expectations going against the current rainbow jersey holder, Van der Poel.
“Of course, when you go head-to-head with Mathieu, it’s difficult, and Wout will also step up. I think it’s two a little bit in front and many behind - I think the other teams also need to do something,” Rast laughed.
“I think all the teams could [take advantage] if they watched each other. I think they are the guys to watch, and then our guys are not far behind, especially Mads and Jasper."
