Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) capped off a successful spring campaign with victories at E3 Classics, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix but said that a third place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège was the best he could do against a rider like Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
"I'm realistic enough. I know that if Pogačar has a good day, I cannot follow him, not even with my best legs, which is normal," Van der Poel said in a post-race interview with Cycling Pro Net.
"We also know that he can have a bad day, or at least I hope he can have a bad day. He was impressive again today, and I think my Classics season was more than successful. I'm really happy to end up on the podium here today."
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Van der Poel came into his Spring Classics off the back of winning a sixth cyclocross world title in Tabor in February.
Asked if peaking for a more than six-week period might have affected his performance at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Van der Poel said that while he understands it is difficult to combine the cobbled Classics with the Ardennes Classics, he preferred to remain realistic about his performance compared to Pogačar on such a challenging route.
"It is possible. I may have underestimated the decompression after the Ronde and Roubaix. The main thing is that I'm already training and peaking from cyclocross and that makes it a long period to go to Liège," Van der Poel said.
"Like I said, even with my best shape, it would be difficult to follow Tadej. It's also not a shame; everyone has his races, and I did what I had to do in mine."
Pogačar won his sixth career Monument after attacking up the La Redoute and soloing 34km to the finish line, taking the win by 1:39 ahead of runner-up Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
Van der Poel finished third place at 2:02 back, a result that surprised even himself after he was caught behind a small crash that held up a portion of the peloton on a steep climb with about 100km to go.
He said the effort he put forth in the chase was difficult, and he didn't think they would make it back to the front of the race.
"I'm happy because I didn't think I would get a podium spot until about 5km to go, so I think everyone saw that this was the highest possible [result] for me today," Van der Poel said, offering an explanation about how he ended up behind the crash.
"It was a big, big effort. I was just going back to get my leg warmers and gloves. And then a crash happened. Then, the road was blocked. I thought we were never going to see the front race again, and I was happy that after a long pursuit, we came back, but I already felt that my legs were tired a bit.
"But even with the legs of Ronde and Roubaix, I don't think I could have followed Pogačar."
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