Tour of Flanders 2022 overview

The 2022 Tour of Flanders podium (l-r): Dylan van Baarle, Mathieu van der Poel and Valentin Madouas — Final 2022 podium has winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) on podium beside second-placed Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers) and third-placed Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) (Image credit: Getty Images)

Mathieu van der Poel tops Van Baarle in a Tour of Flanders thriller

The Dutchman, who was runner-up last year, fought under the 1km kite with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), but allowed chasers Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) to make the catch in the final hundred metres. Van Baarle was able to grab second place with Madouas dashing ahead of Pogačar for third. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) was the first chaser home at two seconds back.

It was a small group at the front of the race with 15km to go on the Oude Kwaremont - Van der Poel, Van Baarle, Madouas, Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). It was here Pogačar attacked, yet again, and the power only matched by Van der Poel. The two jetted away and it looked as if the duo would battle to the line, but Pogačar played cat and mouse and a 30-second gap on chasers fizzled out, as well as the Slovenian's final push to the podium.

The crowds were back at the race after a two-year absence, lining the 272km course as the official race start in Antwerp’s Grote Markt took place on a sunny but cold day. A group of nine escapees built a maximum advantage of more than four minutes: Stan Dewulf (AG2R-Citroën), Sebastien Grignard (Lotto Soudal), Lindsay De Vylder (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Mathijs Paasschens (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauces-WB), Manuele Boaro (Astana Qazaqstan), Luca Mozzato (B&B Hotels-KTM), Tom Bohli (Cofidis) and Max Kanter (Movistar).

Over the first ascent of the Oude Kwaremont – the first of the day’s 18 hellingen – with 140km remaining and the advantage of the breakaway began to disappear, and counter-attacks began to shatter the peloton. The complexion of the entire race changed on the first climb of the Oude Kwaremont, as Pogačar surged violently from the peloton and over two kilometres closed the gap to the chasers and passed the early breakaway riders.

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Results - top 5
Pos.	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix	6:18:30
2	Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers
3	Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
4	Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
5	Stefan Küng (Swi) Groupama-FDJ	0:00:02

Call it the Tour of Flanders, the Ronde van Vlaanderen or 'De Ronde' for short, Tour des Flandres, Giro delle Fiandre, or Flandern Rundfahrt, the Vlaanderens Mooiste is the pinnacle of one-day racing in Belgium. The race had its first edition in 1913, the brainchild of Sportwereld's Léon van den Haute to reinvigorate cycling in Belgium and provide the Flemish people with an event entirely within their region.