A dark horse for the podium at Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix? – Cycling's new late attacker is making his presence impossible to ignore

The sight of anyone bridging across solo to a leading duo of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert is certain to pique the interest of the cycling world, but young Belgian Alec Segaert is quickly making the late attack his trademark move and his presence impossible to ignore.

Already a winner at WorldTour level in a time trial and a three-time under-23 European ITT Champion, Segaert has surely taken inspiration from Fabian Cancellara in his methods, and could prove a genuine outside podium contender for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the coming two weeks.

"He's already improved quite a lot. He's more confident, and he knows that now, these attacks have become his style," said Bahrain Victorious sports director Michał Gołaś to Cyclingnews of their star signing for 2026 from Lotto.

"I think we still have some room to improve, but definitely, his endurance is great, and you can see that he can make a huge difference."

Having lit up racing at Nokere Koerse and GP de Denain with late moves, one ending in him being caught within 75 metres of the line and the other with him narrowly winning solo, the Belgian once again raised his stock with victory only eluding him in the final 500 metres at In Flanders Fields.

With the eternal rivals still out in front after attacking away on the Kemmelberg on Sunday, a thrilling 35km chase was nearing an end on the streets heading into Wevelgem as the peloton bore down on Van der Poel and Van Aert, but Segaert changed the nature of the finale with his move in the last 6km.

Even though Van der Poel wasn't fully committed and Van Aert refused to simply tow his companion to the line for a two-up sprint, it took Segaert just over a kilometre to reach the two superstars. But from there, he was caught in two minds whether to pull through fully and guarantee at least a podium, or try to go all in for the win.

"I still had fresh legs, actually, in the final, so I wanted to try something. I found a good moment to attack from the peloton and closed the gap quite quickly to the two leaders. Then I had to make a choice about what to do," said Segaert in the mixed zone.

"Actually, I'm still in doubt if I made the right choice, but we tried to go for the victory. This is the problem: you don't have a lot of time to think about how you want to play it.

"This was one of the scenarios I had in my head, but when I joined, I had to recover a little bit, then I did some turns, but I didn't just want to ride for a podium and settle for that. Maybe I should have done, I don't know, but I tried."

Segaert was welcomed at the Bahrain Victorious team bus by friends and family from his fan club, where the team confirmed that the late attack had always been their plan, whether or not a duo like Van der Poel and Van Aert were ahead.

Ultimately, he was the last man standing from the trio, attempting one last attack to stay ahead under the flamme rouge. But sadly for the top time trialist, he had a two-time ITT World Champion in Filippo Ganna chasing him down. Without the Italian pulling all in for Sam Watson, who sprinted to 17th, Segaert could have survived solo.

"The attack was planned already before, actually, and he executed very well. Unfortunately, a couple of 100 meters were missing, but we are still super happy about his performance," said Gołaś to Cyclingnews at the team bus.

"We were going quite for the podium, and we really thought about pulling this group to the finish line, but it wasn't easy. To bridge to these two guys, it's hard, and he definitely had one moment to take a breath and try his best again. We couldn't do much more than this."

Segaert had no regrets over how he played it, which is the attitude he carried throughout his near miss at Nokere Koerse earlier in the month and at the GP de Denain a day later, where it paid off with victory. But he perhaps knew after the dramatic finale at E3 Saxo Classic, where a four-man group allowed Van der Poel to stay ahead, that the chasers wouldn't make the same error.

"What should I do? I can also let the peloton catch me, but I wanted to go for it. It was a tailwind, so you never know, but there were too many guys left in the peloton," he said. "No, they were not going to make the same mistakes again [as they did in E3]."

Flanders and Roubaix are, of course, different beasts entirely from Denain and the renamed Gent-Wevelgem, and the climbs at the former could prove a stretch too far for Segaert. But at 23, he's already showing signs of becoming a top Classics contender, and Bahrain's main leader ahead of Matej Mohorič.

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