Tadej, along with his UAE Team Emirates – XRG, put on another exceptional cycling spectacle at the 109th Tour of Flanders. On his way to his second victory in the biggest Belgian classic, he attacked eight times before shaking off all competitors on the third ascent of the Oude Kwaremont.
No one could follow his acceleration 18 kilometers from the finish of the 269-kilometer race. By the top of Kwaremont, he had built a 12-second lead over Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck), Wout van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen, and Jasper Stuyven (both Lidl Trek). He then faced the final climb on Paterberg, where Tadej’s lead increased to 25 seconds.
In the 13 flat kilometers to the finish, he not only maintained his lead but extended it to one minute, even though the pursuers did not relent. Thus, Tadej won the Tour of Flanders for the second time after 2023, while Pedersen defeated van der Poel and van Aert in the sprint for second place.
»The goal was to win, but it’s still hard to grasp that we succeeded in the end. I couldn’t be prouder of the team and how we raced today, even though we had some bad luck. I am very happy to have won this race in this jersey,« Tadej was thrilled about his victory in the rainbow jersey of the world champion.
He achieved it despite his team facing quite a few difficulties. »The plan was to attack on Kwaremont, and despite the crashes in the team, we stuck to the plan. In the crash that also involved Mathieu, we lost Jhonatan Narvaez, Tim Wellens, and Florian Vermeersch. Florian returned to the front just in time to help me on Kwaremont. No one gave up; everyone in the team went beyond themselves to realize the plan. Despite all the difficulties, we succeeded,« continued Tadej. He finished the race with a time of 5:58:41 and a record average speed of 44.981 km/h.
This was Tadej’s fifth victory of the year and the 93rd of his career, in which he has already won eight monuments – four times at Il Lombardia and twice at both the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
On Sunday, he will chase his ninth victory in the biggest one-day races in the world, making his debut at Paris–Roubaix. »This is a completely different race; I will accept the challenge and give it my all. Flanders suits me a bit better, but you never know; Roubaix is also a tough race. With the form I have at the moment, I will give it a try,« Tadej said about the 259.2-kilometer »Hell of the North,« where the peloton will have to overcome 30 sections of cobblestones.