'I gave up, actually, because they were so close' – Mathieu van der Poel made to look human despite completing E3 Saxo Classic hat-trick with 'one of my best efforts'

It's typically only Tadej Pogačar who can make Mathieu van der Poel accept defeat in the toughest one-day races, but after 63 kilometres almost entirely on his own in front at the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday and with a four-man chase group bearing down on him, the Dutchman had all but given in as he started to run out of steam.

"I gave up, actually, because they were so close," admitted Van der Poel during his winner's press conference after narrowly holding on for the victory. "But then I thought, if I wait now and they come back and it's a sprint, for sure, I'll come last in the group because I was on the limit.

"I think they also thought I gave up, and then I just tried one more time, seated, to go as fast as possible to the finish line, and I think that they doubted a little bit behind and then I could make it to the finish.

"I'm just really happy because it's always shit if you put so much effort into a breakaway like this, and then you get caught at 1k to go, that would have been really shit."

Van der Poel first went solo up the Boigneberg after following a Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) acceleration on the Taaienberg and moving away from many of his expected rivals before the last 70km. After which he caught the two groups in front of him, before eventually attacking away alone and atop the Paterberg with 42.2km left to complete.

"I already saw that nobody is going to work with me, so I wanted to attack, and to have one or two riders with me that would work with me, but then I was alone at the top, and there was no way back," he said before explaining how the conditions would come to affect him.

"It was one of my best efforts, actually, because the wind made it really hard when I went alone, and already the first 30km I had to do alone against the wind, it was really hard."

At this point, though, the race looked as good as done – as it has been the past two years – and Van der Poel looked set for a dominant hat-trick at the 202km race that follows many of the same roads as the upcoming Tour of Flanders in just over a week's time.

Even after his crash and defeat at Milan-San Remo, Van der Poel had seemingly removed any doubts over his finger injury – which was "annoying but not overly painful" almost a week on – and his form after getting dropped on the Poggio, but the race was far from over.

Faltering in the final 5km and what it might mean for Flanders

He failed to extend his gap past a minute, and even with poor cooperation in the various groups behind, he remained around only 55 seconds ahead. This was being threatened by Florian Vermeersch, Jonas Abrahamsen and Per Strand Hagenes, who got away from the peloton in the final 30km, and joined up with early breakaway remnant Stan Dewulf to form a powerful quartet.

They worked to chase down the faltering Dutchman – a rare sight in itself – but even he couldn't muster up the strength to outpower four against one into a headwind, and the gap started to plummet down in the final 5km when Van der Poel ran out of steam.

Perhaps the rider with the best killer instinct at the finish in the peloton, Van der Poel hoped that the situation which eventually unfolded would come true; that the group behind would look at each other, with Vermeersch calling his companions' bluff just three seconds behind Van der Poel after doing the lion's share of the work and allowing him to stay away.

"I knew it was going to be really difficult, like I said, I knew the gap was going to come down," said Van der Poel.

"But I just tried to fight as hard as possible, hoping that they would start looking at each other the closer we got to the finish line, because they were also thinking about the victory when they came closer.

"I just did the best I could, actually, and I didn't pay too much attention to the time gap."

In reality, this was his only option according to Alpecin-Premier Tech, and though their star man did look vulnerable even without Pogačar present on the start line of E3, they will both be hoping he has more performance to gain before their next face-off at De Ronde on April 5.

"I think it's quite obvious that after trying to stay away like he did that, he didn't count on sprinting anymore, because that would have been a little bit too optimistic," team co-owner Philip Roodhooft told Cyclingnews.

"In that way, it was easy for him in the decision-making process. I think in the end, he was not saying anything anymore. He just tried to stay ahead, and it worked out."

After all, one of those who almost caught him in Friday's finale, Vermeersch, will be just one of UAE's star supporting cast for Pogačar at the centre piece of the Flemish racing period in nine days time. If he falters as he did in the last 5km in the face of the Slovenian, he will surely be left behind as he was in 2023 and 2025.

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