As it happened: Thrilling finale at E3 Saxo Classic comes down to the wire
The cobbled Classics get serious with the 'mini Tour of Flanders'
E3 Saxo Classic 2026 - Contenders
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Hello and welcome to the 2026 E3 Saxo Classic!
After Wednesday’s Ronde Van Brugges kicked off the Flemish ‘Holy Week’, this is where the cobbled classics season starts to get really hard. There are a lot more climbs on the menu today, in a race that’s considered to be the closest in proximity to the Tour of Flanders due to its difficulty.
The headline name on the startlist is Mathieu van der Poel, who’s going for three consecutive E3 titles, following his long-range solo victories in both 2024 and 2025. Victory in a similar way at Omloop Nieuwsblad suggests he’s got the legs to do the same again this year - but how well has he managed to recover from his crash at Milan-Sanremo?
At least on paper, Mads Pedersen is the biggest threat to Van der Poel’s title defence. Pedersen is another rider with question marks about his fitness, following the crash that kept him out of action for several weeks. But whereas Van der Poel faded towards the end of Milan-Sanremo, he was resurgent, and managed to sprint for fourth place.
Before the race gets going, have a read of our full run-down of the main men to keep an eye on today.
Mathieu van der Poel with his Alpecin teammates at the start.
The riders have departed Harelbeke football stadium and begun the neutralised section, which is only 3km today. They’ll be racing imminently!
Already underway is stage 5 of Volta a Catalunya, which you can also follow with us.
There's one non-starter who was supposed to be taking part today - Lotto's Luca Van Boven.
There have been some tweaks to the route this year, with extra ascents of both the Oude Kwaremont and Karnemelkbeekstraat (aka the E3 Col) added.
The weather is always a crucial factor in the Belgian classics, and right now the skies are grey - but no rain has materialised. The forecast suggests there’s a chance that might change later in the day.
Van der Poel at the start.
Those four riders are Marco Haller, Kamil Małecki, Filip Maciejuk and Milan Lanhove.
The four attackers have been brought back and the race is all together again.
Visma's Edoardo Affini is the latest to try an attack.
Affini has been brought back.
The attempt earlier of the quartet featuring Marco Haller to escape from the peloton.
Five more riders briefly got a gap, but they too have been caught.
A new group of five has formed, and lead the peloton by a few seconds.
Those five riders are: Artem Shmidt, Roel van Sintmaartensdijk, Alexys Brunel, Dylan Vandenstorme and Alexandre Mayer.
Those riders have been joined by a sixth, Henri-François Renard-Haquin, and lead the peloton by a slender margin of just a few seconds.
We have a first DNF to report - Fabio Jakobsen, who also had to pull out of Ronde Van Brugges earlier this week.
The five riders have been reabsorbed into the peloton.
That’s the climbs done for a while. There are 16 in total today, but the remaining 15 are all condensed within the final 130km.
This move is looking promising, with their lead growing. UAE and Picnic-PostNL tried to cover the move with Julius Johansen and Bjorn Koerdt respectively, but both are back in the peloton.
The trio's lead continues to grow, it's now at nearly 30 seconds.
160KM TO GO
Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ), Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello Q36.5) and Michiel Lambrecht (Team Flanders - Baloise) have 30 seconds now. The peloton hasn’t sat up yet, but their hoped-for status as break of the day is looking promising.
The powerful duo of Edoardo Affini and Jan Tratnik formed to try and join the leading trio, but the peloton were alert to the danger they posed and brought them back.
Stan Dewulf, Luke Durbridge and Sven Erik Bystrøm have formed a new chase group, and are about to join the leaders.
They have joined up to them, so we have a new lead group of 6 riders.
It’s far from settled yet in the peloton. Attacks are still being fired off the front.
Picnic-PostNL are especially active, and have one man in solo pusruit of the break.
Now things are at last settling in the peloton. The bunch is spread across the road and no more moves are being made.
Sean Flynn is the Picnic rider chasing the leaders, and has about 30 seconds to make up.
Flynn's teammate Renard-Haquin has jumped out the peloton along with Burgos' Vojtěch Kmínek, but the rest of the group is happy to let them go.
150KM TO GO
The peloton has sat up, giving the lead group an advantage of 1:30. The chasers still have ground to make up, with Flynn one minute behind them, and Renard-Haquin and Kmínek 1:15 behind.
Time to run errands in the peloton, with riders taking comfort breaks, bidons and feeds. It’s all calm, and the break’s lead is allowed to go up to over two and a half minutes.
The 6 riders leading the race.
Flynn has been joined by Kmínek and Renard-Haquin, but the three are in no-man's land for now, 1:45 ahead of the peloton but still 1:15 behind the leaders.
Not long until the break will be climbing again, with La Hoppe just 5km away.
Silvan Dillier has resumed his role leading at the front of the peloton for Alpecin-Deceuninck, following his monster turn at Milan-Sanremo. We took a look at how the Belgian fuels such a huge workload.
Despite the calm atmosphere, there’s been a crash in the peloton. Rui Oliveira and Sakarias Koller Løland are involved.
Van der Poel is racing on his new Canyon Endurance bike today, in what’s shaping up to be a tech arms race ahead of Paris-Roubaix. Here’s our lowdown on the bike.
There was an increase in the peloton, but that was for positioning on the approach to a brief cobbled section, and it has slowed down again.
The Alpecin team is doing most of the work at the front of the peloton, but Soudal-QuickStep are making their presence known too. They want to reassert themselves as a leading team in the classics, having switched their focus to Remco Evenepoel in recent years, and have new signings Jasper Stuyven and Dylan Van Baarle to lead them today.
The peloton riding up La Houppe earlier.
A reminder that we also have live updates on today's Volta a Catalunya stage.
The three chasers between the leaders and the peloton, who do seem like they're on a bit of a hiding to nothing.
It seems the race is livening up again! The pace is up in the peloton, as the Oude Kruisberg looms imminently.
Lots of teams battling for the best positions at the front of the peloton.
Soudal-QuickStep lead the peloton as they neat the foot of the climb.
In the chase group, Renard-Haquin is being distenced by Flynn and Kminek.
Soudal, Lidl and Red Bull are the most prominant teams at the front of the peloton as they ascend the climb. Van der Poel's Alpecin is further back.
Race on! Visma-Lease a Bike's Kielich has attacked up the E3-Col.
He's taken five riders with him.
Hoole, Theuns, Turgis, Planckaert and Swift are those with Kielich.
This Kielich group is about to catch the three-man chase group who have been in no-man's land all day.
Pepijn Reinderink has also made it into his group, providing coverage for Soudal-QuickStep.
This group has caught Renard-Haquin, Kmínek and Flynn, forming a new ten-man group.
Most of the big teams are represented in this chase group: Alpecin with Planckaert, Lidl with Theuns, Soudal with Reinderink and Visma with Kielich.
Pithie has attacked out of the peloton with Van Sintmaartensdijk.
Pithis is trying to cover the move for Red Bull, who are the biggest team to have missed it
Floris Van Tricht has gone down while leading the peloton around a corner. He's back up quickly and riding again, thankfully.
UAE lead the peloton. They have also missed the move.
Pithie and Van Sintmaartensdijk have been caught, and Red Bull have counter-attacked with Tratnik.
Tratnik has Honoré with him.
Tratnik and Honoré are using the cobbles of the Kwaremont to increase their lead.
Another Visma rider has tried to attack out of the peloton. The team are trying to make this race hard, rather than give an easy ride to Van der Poel.
Tratnik and Honoré crest the Kwaremont with the peloton right behind them.
Up ahead, Renard-Haquin, Kmínek and Flynn have been dropped out of the chase group.
Tratnik and Honoré have caught the three riders dropped from the chase group.
Tratnik, Honoré and the three riders they were with have been brought back into the peloton.
Mechanical for Florian Vermeersch. And it’s at a terrible time for the Belgian, as the race is on now.
The pace isn’t up yet in the peloton, but it won’t be long before the jostling for position for the next climb, the Kortekeer.
This is the last climb before what pretty much everyone agrees is the one where the race will explode into life - the Taainberg. This is the climb all the favourites identify as where the selections are made, and so the battle for positioning onto it will be fierce.
Vermeersch has just about made himself back on to the back of the peloton as they start climbing Kortekeer. Despite the bad timing of that mechanical, it looks like he’s got himself back in contention.
Ivan Garcia has attacked out of the peloton.
Van der Poel, safely in the bunch. Does he have anything planned for the Taainberg?
Soudal-QuickStep lead the bunch as they apporach the climb.
Soudal have Tom Boonen in the car for them today, who made attacks on this hill his trademark.
Here we go then! Stuyven leads the peloton on the Taaieneberg.
Tim Van Dijke passes him and gets a gap, and now Van der Poel is closing him down by himself.
That duo crest the climb a few seconds ahead of Stuyven Laporte, Trentin and Del Grosso.
Ivan Garcia has attacked out of the peloton.
Van der Poel and Van Dijke are working together.
Van der Poel and Van Dijke are bearing down on the chase group.
Van der Poel and Van Dijke have joined the chase group.
The peloton were only 10 seconds behind the chasers, but the coheison is already breaking down in the group.
He's dropped everyone, including Van Dijke, who was his equal on the Taaienberg.
A Groupama rider leads the peloton up the climb, with Pedersen on his wheel.
Grégoire is the Groupama rider at the front of the peloton.
There's no indiciation that Van der Poel's injury from Milan-Sanremo is slowing him down at all.
Abrahamsen has attacked the peloton on the Eikenberg.
Florian Vermeersch and a Red Bull rider have followed Abramasen.
Pithie was the Red Bull rider, but the peloton is about to bring them back thanks to Soudal-QuickStep.
F. Vermeersch, Pithie and Abrahamsen appear not to have been caught by the peloton, but rather joined by a few other riders. They're still clear of the main peloton.
Del Grosso and Stuyven are some of those to have joined the F.Vermeersch group.
As is Mads Pedersen.
This group has joined the seven-man chase group Van der Poel attacked out of earlier.
Actually, it seems that Vacek is the Lidl rider in this chase group, not Pedersen.
Tratnik has attacked out the peloton. He's been lively today.
The large chase group featuring Florian Vermeersch and co have been caught by the peloton again.
Van der Poel has the leaders in sight now, just 20 seconds ahead.
Tratnik is looking good, and has built a lead of 15 seconds on the peloton, but still has 30 seconds to make up on Van der Poel.
Van der Poel catches them just as they crest the top of the climb.
Tratnik is 45 seconds behind the Van der Poel lead group, and the peloton are 1:05 behind.
This was the moment earlier when Van der Poel and Tim Van Dijke went clear from the peloton on the Taaienberg. Van Dijke must have gone deep here, as he's struggled ever since and is back in the peloton.
The Van der Poel lead group is about to reach the Paterberg. We’ve seen the big man attack here many times in the past - and we can surely expect another one here.
Van der Poel drops Dewulf just before the summit, and leads the race by himself. Plus ça change.
In the peloton, Pedersen is leading the group up, with Van Dijke on his wheel.
Tratnik appears to have been caught by the peloton, now reduced after the Paterberg.
It's still quite a big peloton that's together, of what looks to be about 40 or 50 riders.
Van der Poel crests the top of the climb, with his lead over Dewulf much bigger now, up to 30 seconds.
UAE are active in the peloton, with Morgado at the front.
Morgado has flown up the Kwaremont. He's caught and passed the chase group all by himself.
Morgado has been joined by Sven Erik Bystrøm, the only man from the earlier chase group to be able to follow him. They are now the third group on the road, behind Van der Poel in the lead, and Dewulf in second.
Just two more climbs left to complete for Van der Poel.
A Groupama and Visma rider have jumped out of the peloton and have a small gap.
It appears that Morgado and Bystrøm were caught by the peloton earlier.
Hagenes was the Visma rider, and though the Groupama rider was dropped, he's now been joined by fellow Norwegian Abrahamsen instead.
Florian Vermeersch has joined that duo, as they climb the E3-Col.
And now those three riders have caught Dewulf.
This new chasing quartet is working well together, and are almost 20 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Van der Poel leading the race all by himself, as per usual.
There's a battle on for second place. The teams in the peloton are trying to get their act together, but still the quartet is 20 seconds ahead.
Van der Poel's lead is 50 seconds on the chasers, and 1:10 on the peloton.
Mads Pedersen isn’t done yet - he’s accelerating at the front of the peloton on a flat cobbled section.
Pedersen hasn't succeeded in going clear, nor has he made any real inroads on the group ahead.
Stuyven attacks out of the peloton and has a small gap.
This isn’t the usual Van der Poel obliteration. His lead’s actually come down a bit, to under 40 seconds.
Florian Vermeersch is the man doing most of the chase, and is getting frustrated with the others for not contributing more.
Could this be race on? Van der Poel is only 35 seconds ahead, and is getting news of his time gaps from his Alpecin team car.
Visually, the gap looks like it might actually be less than the reported 35 seconds. Is Van der Poel in danger of being caught?
Back in the peloton Stuyven has been caught and a Movistar rider has conter-attacked.
Van der Poel appears to be holding his lead, which is still being reported at about 30 seconds.
Meanwhile the peloton is being led by Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, and are 30 seconds behind the F. Vermeersch group.
Van der Poel's lead has crept down a little more, to 28 seconds.
The third group on the road, the peloton, still looks to have about 30 or so riders in it.
Groupama are now helping Red Bull with the chase.
And the peloton is also getting near the F. Vermeersch group, and are now under 20 seconds away. Could this all come back together before the finish?!?
To add to the drama, it’s also starting to rain lightly.
Groupama and Red Bull are committed to this chase, and have brought Van der Poel back to 45 seconds. The latter have just used up Pithie, who swings off and is dropped.
Van der Poel is struggling - he's now just 18 seconds ahead of the chasers.
There are lots of fast finishers in the peloton who now might have a chance of winning in a sprint, if this does come back together. Among them are Pedersen and Laporte.
Only 14 seconds now for Van der Poel onthe chasers, and 35 seconds on the peloton. This could be so close.
Only 5km left to ride.
Van der Poel is looking over is shoulder, and can see the chasers, just 10 seconds behind.
Dewolf is no longer taking turns in the chase, having been in the break from earlier in the day.
Now Van der Poel has 8 seconds with just 3km left. This could be so close...
The peloton are falling out of contenion however, still 25 seconds behind the chasers.
It looks like advantage chase group.
If the catch is made, all bets are off as to who from the chase group wins. None of the riders here are known for their sprint.
1.5km to go, 5 seconds is the gap.
Still Van der Poel isn't giving up, but he looks like he's going to get caught.
What’s happened? Van der Poel has found a second life, and is riding away again!
It looks like he's going to solo to victory after all...
It was an extraordinary finale. The chasers were mere seconds away and looked like they were about to make the catch. Then the chasers started looking at each other, and Van der Poel accelerated again. Before they could respond, Van der Poel was away and riding to victory.
Hagenes won the sprint for second ahead of Vermeersch, Dewulf and Abrahamsen. But he will surely be lamenting that he wasn’t sprinting for victory.
Van der Poel usually wins races with his legs, but this time he had to use his brain as well. It seems he slowed to make the break believe the catch was inevitable, but still kept something in reserve to accelerate again to catch them out. Chapeau to the Dutchman.
When asked at the finish if he felt he had lost the race, Van der Poel answered: “A few times actually, with a bit more than 1 [kilometre] to go.
“The legs were just not really turning well anymore, and then I looked back and they were really close. I knew if I waited I didn’t have the legs anymore to do a sprint. So I just did a seated all-out to the finish line.”
To what extent did Van der Poel play a clever game in holding on for the win, or the chase group throw away a golden opportunity by looking at each other? That’s the big question when looking back at the race.
In the peloton, Andresen won the sprint for 6th, ahead of Laporte, Gianni Vermeersch, Pedersen and Trentin.
Here's what Florian Vermeersch had to say at the finish, after finishing third.
“I was asking for one more pull from my fellow competitors, but they decided they wanted to gamble. I said I wasn’t going to be the guy to close the gap with my last efforts. That’s racing, but like I said, I’m happy with my podium”
Given that Vermeersch was outsprinted to the line by Hagenes, and did the lion’s share of the work during the chase, you can understand his decision to try to get the others to chase.
Hagenes is talking at the finish, and says he’s happy with his second place. “That’s racing,” he says when explaining how nobody wanted to take a turn when Vermeersch asked them to do so in the finale.
Second-place at a race as big as this is a big result for young Hagenes, who is only 22-years-old. He won the sprint for second, which arguably makes him the man who should most regret not catching Van der Poel; but then again, would he still have had the legs to win the sprint had he taken it upon himself to bring back Van der Poel when prompted by Vermeersch?
With a finish like this, you can only work in hypotheticals, and it’s impossible to know what the right decision would have been.
One thing is for sure - Van der Poel had to go very deep to win that.
Hagenes taking the sprint for second place, behind Van der Poel.
Thanks for joining us today, for another race won by Mathieu van der Poel - but one that was far closer than anyone anticipated once he broke clear early on, and produced one of the most thrilling E3 finishes in memory.
Van der Poel is looking more human than for a while, even while he does keep winning. The stage is therefore set for a thrilling Tour of Flanders next week, when he’ll go up against Tadej Pogačar - but in the meantime, he’ll be back racing at Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday. Be sure to join us there and then for live coverage!
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