Asgreen Beats Van der Poel to Win Tour of Flanders
OUDENAARDE, Belgium (AFP)— Danish cyclist Kasper Asgreen timed his attack perfectly with about 250 meters left and overtook Dutchman Mathieu Van der Poel to win the Tour of Flanders classic for the first time.
Asgreen sat on the defending champion’s wheel entering the last kilometer and then surged ahead of Van der Poel, who tried to resist but eased up just before the line when he knew defeat was inevitable.
Both completed the 254-kilometer (157.5-mile) trek in just over six hours.
The last Dane to win the race was Rolf Sorensen in 1997.
It was Asgreen’s second big win of the season after victory late last month at the E3 Classic, which was also held in the Flanders region of Belgium.
Van der Poel, who rides for the Alpecin-Fenix team, won last year’s exciting race in a photo finish ahead of his former Cyclo-cross rival Wout van Aert of Belgium, who was dropped from the leading group of three riders with 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) to go. He finished third, about 30 seconds behind the front two.
His father Adrie van der Poel won the race in 1986.
First held in 1913, the race in the Flemish Ardennes region is also known as De Ronde and is one of five classics along with Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia.
Asgreen sat on the defending champion’s wheel entering the last kilometer and then surged ahead of Van der Poel, who tried to resist but eased up just before the line when he knew defeat was inevitable.
Both completed the 254-kilometer (157.5-mile) trek in just over six hours.
The last Dane to win the race was Rolf Sorensen in 1997.
It was Asgreen’s second big win of the season after victory late last month at the E3 Classic, which was also held in the Flanders region of Belgium.
Van der Poel, who rides for the Alpecin-Fenix team, won last year’s exciting race in a photo finish ahead of his former Cyclo-cross rival Wout van Aert of Belgium, who was dropped from the leading group of three riders with 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) to go. He finished third, about 30 seconds behind the front two.
His father Adrie van der Poel won the race in 1986.
First held in 1913, the race in the Flemish Ardennes region is also known as De Ronde and is one of five classics along with Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia.