Rain creates chaos on the Koppenberg as World Champion and Italian Champion fly to victory
2024 Tour of Flanders winners Mathieu van der Poel and Elisa Longo Borghini(Image credit: Getty Images)
Everyone expected Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to ride away with his third Tour of Flanders title, especially after rival Wout van Aert crashed and broke his collarbone, ribs and sternum in a crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen in the days leading up to the 2024 edition.
Writing your name into the history books as the seventh rider to win De Ronde three times is far from a simple task, however.
The world champion never put a foot wrong in the race, even as the rain fell and attacks flew. The legendary Koppenberg was Van der Poel's launching pad and his fellow competitors struggled, slipped and slid out in his wake as he stormed away on the punishing gradients.
A race that is decided on the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg in the final 20 kilometres was done and dusted before Van der Poel even reached those climbs, and the only surprising moment of the race was Luca Mozatto (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) winning the sprint for second over Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates).
The women's race was a very different story: Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) won her second Tour of Flanders while World Champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) crashed in the early part of the race and struggled uncharacteristically after two years of dominating the Tour of Flanders.
The Koppenberg was a mess for the women, too, and even Kopecky had to run as the rain pounded down.
Instead, Lidl-Trek proved to be the strongest team, with Shirin van Anrooij launching a strong solo attack before the Oude Kwaremont with 21km to go and looking as if she would ride away to the win.
On the Paterberg, Van Anrooij's teammate attacked to bridge across, bringing Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) along. Longo Borghini came from behind in the three-rider sprint to snatch the win from the Polish rider.
Images by Zac Williams/SWPix.com unless otherwise noted.
Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
