If Tadej Pogačar is going to cross the finish line first in Oudenaarde at the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, then avoiding a sprint finish with Mathieu van der Poel or any of his faster rivals is key. The only way to achieve a second victory will be to distance the Dutchman on the Oude Kwaremont or elsewhere on the course. He simply can’t afford to drag his main rival to the line, and he knows this too.
Two years ago he went solo on the Kwaremont with one of the most unanswerable attacks that the race has ever seen. It was brutal, calculated and simply devastating. Van der Poel was in fine form but could not live with the Slovenian's punishing acceleration, before he then disappeared and carried on the assault over the Paterberg.
