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Mathieu van der Poel is on course for Tour of Flanders history
Mathieu van der Poel lines up at the Tour of Flanders this weekend as one of a very select few to have won the race three times, and will cement his legend as the outright most successful rider over 109 editions should he come out on top this weekend.
The road to the record
Van der Poel’s first Monument victory came at the Tour of Flanders in 2020. Just one year after missing the podium by a whisker, he broke away with Wout van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe after the Taaienberg. Following the Frenchman’s collision with a motorbike, the trio became a duo and Van der Poel was able to outsprint eternal rival Van Aert at the finish line. He almost won again in exactly the same fashion in 2021, however he was beaten in the sprint on this occasion by Kasper Asgreen.
He got back to winning ways the next year, however. After an attack with Tadej Pogačar on the Oude Kwaremont, the two started looking at each other in the final kilometre and ended up being caught by a chasing group. That was no bother for Van der Poel though, as he dominated the sprint while Pogačar missed the podium altogether.
Another second place followed in 2023 – after Pogačar learned his lesson and went solo for the win – before a third victory for the Dutchman in 2024. In the kind of move that typically just doesn’t happen at the Tour of Flanders, Van der Poel was able to distance the field on the Koppenberg – 44km from the finish. Previously the Koppenberg had been viewed as one of those classic ‘you can’t win the race here but you can lose it’ climbs – no longer. It was the second-longest successful solo attack of the past two decades at the race.
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a clear pattern emerging here: first, second, first, second, first. That would suggest Van der Poel is due to finish second in 2025. But trends are made to be broken, and you’d be brave to bet against him.
The 30-year-old has been on hot form this year, winning every single one-day race he’s lined up at so far. He impressively held on under a barrage of Pogačar attacks at Milan-San Remo to win that race for a second time, and easily took victory at the ‘mini Tour of Flanders’ E3, though Pogačar wasn’t there.
It feels like a question of when Van der Poel will win a fourth Tour of Flanders, not if. And when that time comes, he’ll move clear of Achiel Buysse, Fiorenzo Magni, Eric Leman, Johan Museeuw, Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara to stand alone as the most successful rider in the race’s history. He’s already among the pantheon of the greats, but stands poised to be indisputably the best the race has ever seen.
Beyond that, with seven wins across Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo, Van der Poel is currently placed joint fifth on the all-time list of Monument winners. Though he’s still quite a way behind Eddy Merckx’s record of 19, Van der Poel is currently alongside Boonen, Cancellara, Pogačar and Gino Bartali.
He and Pogačar are the only active riders on the list to have won more than three. By the end of the weekend one will likely go a step clear, and that could change once more at Paris-Roubaix. Even if Van der Poel is bested this time around, it’s safe to say he will return to take that fourth victory at some point, and take his place in Flanders legend.
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