Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, and Filippo Ganna had barely shoehorned themselves into that comically narrow couch behind the Milan-San Remo podium when they found themselves being asked to cast their minds forward to the cobbled Classics. Over at the UAE Team Emirates bus, Tadej Pogačar was fielding similar questions.
It’s the most relentless time of the year. After the white-knuckle drama of the Poggio, thoughts turn rapidly to the contests ahead on the cobbles of Belgium and northern France. The cobbled Classics ‘season’ ostensibly begins with Brugge-De Panne on Wednesday, though the first real rendezvous for the Flanders contenders comes in Friday’s dress rehearsal at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic.
