Tadej Pogacar imposes his law to achieve his second Tour of Flanders

Display of skills by Tadej Pogacar to win a spectacular Tour of Flanders 2025 in which he had to give his all to overcome not only Mathieu van der Poel but also a formidable Lidl-Trek team with Pedersen living up to expectations, or a fully recovered Visma-Lease a Bike team from the setback of Dwars door Vlaanderen.

New triumph in Flanders for Tadej Pogacar who now sets his sights on Paris-Roubaix

The Tour of Flanders never disappoints. A race that, with the current route configuration, keeps us glued to the television without blinking from over 100 kilometers until its conclusion. This year even more so with all the hype that had been created since Milan-San Remo and everything that had happened in the last week.

The start of the Tour of Flanders, however, was much calmer than usual on a sunny day where the wind, always present in the fields of Flanders, was the only weather element to consider. The breakaway of the day quickly formed, in this edition, made up of 8 cyclists with Connor Swift and Marco Haller as the most prominent names.

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Tension rose as they approached the first ascent of the Oude Kwaremont and the race began to get nervous, in fact, after this climb, on the way to the Eikenberg, a crash occurred involving Mathieu van der Poel, although luckily, without apparent injuries. In fact, with the help of a teammate, Eddie Planckaert, he managed to catch up with the main group on the ascent to the aforementioned Eikenberg.

With the race stabilized again, the peloton of the Tour of Flanders approached, at a frantic pace, towards the next key point of the route, the ascent to the Molenberg and its narrow entrance. Strangely, tranquility prevailed and there were no movements among the favorites. Only Davide Ballerini increased the pace, gaining a few meters at the top to consolidate the typical breakaway of cyclists trying to anticipate, including Benoot, Braet, and Stefan Küng. Behind, in pursuit, another quartet, of higher level, included Quinten Hermans, Filippo Ganna, Daan Hoole, and Matteo Trentin, and as the kilometers passed, both groups would merge and gradually catch up with those who were dropping from the breakaway of the day.

After a transition zone, they reached the second ascent of the Oude Kwaremont. In the approach, an ambitious Visma-Lease a Bike team was seen, perfectly positioning Wout van Aert, but Tadej Pogacar did not want to speculate and, with 56 kilometers still ahead, he decided to shake up the race, taking Van Aert, Jorgenson, and Pedersen with him. The alarms went off for a few seconds as Mathieu van der Poel was not there. He was caught quite far back, but with a display of power, he managed to catch up with the main group in no time.

In any case, they did not dare to consolidate the gap, and it had to be on the Paterberg where Mathieu van der Poel launched an attack to solidify the breakaway with the best riders of this Tour of Flanders, fulfilling the predictions, joined by Jasper Stuyven.

And they reached the mythical and tough Koppenberg where the Slovenian once again pushed hard to drop Van der Poel. He managed to break the group again and join the escapees at the front. Only Mathieu resisted his push, and Filippo Ganna managed to catch up, adding more interest to the race, but once again, after leaving the sector and joining the main road, the regrouping occurred thanks to the work of the Visma-Lease a Bike team.

Wout van Aert tried to surprise at the start of the Kwaremont, but Tadej Pogacar, with a steadily increasing pace, neutralized him even before reaching the cobbled section, and repeating the same move as two years ago, he continued to push and set a pace that this time managed to unsettle Mathieu van der Poel. Just 10 seconds at the top, but the visual sensations between Tadej Pogacar and his pursuers already allowed us to infer that we had the winner of the Tour of Flanders.

The Paterberg and the long flat stretch to Oudenaarde were just a formality in which Pogacar extended his lead until he crossed the finish line victorious in the Tour of Flanders. As a curiosity, for the second consecutive year, a cyclist wearing the rainbow jersey wins De Ronde.

Behind, facing the headwind that always marks the final stretch and the lack of strength, the decision on the remaining podium spots was left to a sprint launched from afar by Mads Pedersen. Wout van Aert tried to catch up, but clearly lacked the spark needed to overtake him, to the point that a photo finish was needed to determine that Wout van Aert had not passed him on the line.

Special mention to Iván García Cortina who, comfortably in a group that arrived more than 2 minutes behind Pogacar, sprinted notably to secure a commendable 9th place just behind Filippo Ganna who won the sprint in this large group.

Tour of Flanders 2025 Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 5h58'41''
2. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) +1'01''
3. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +1'01''
4. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'01''
5. Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) +1'04''
6. Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'51''
7. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +1'53''
8. Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) +2'19''
9. Iván García Cortina (Movistar Team) +2'19''
10. Davide Ballerini (XDS-Astana) +2'19''