Matej Mohorič and Fred Wright will lead TBV at the season’s second Monument this weekend. Matej’s unfortunate series of results at “De Ronde” is due to change, while Fred will look to add another top 10 result to those he achieved in 2022 & ’23. They will be supported by Andrea Pasqualon, Dušan Rajović, Kamil Gradek, Fran Miholjević, and Matevž Govekar. The latter two are making their De Ronde van Vlaanderen debuts, while the first three raced for us here last year.
We’ve got a glimpse of how cycling-mad this country is in the past two weeks, but that madness will culminate this Sunday from Antwerpen to Oudenaarde on the 271 km course. Cobblestones, climbs and small roads define this race, and ultimately will decide the winner.
The first cobbled sector comes after 104 km, while the first climb is the famous Oude Kwaremont, which will be scaled twice more, the last time with just under 20 km to the finish. The final ascent is the Paterberg, shorter but steeper than the Kwaremont with gradients peaking at 20%. It features twice during the day – after 219 km, and with 13 km to go. Those two ‘bergs’ played a decisive role last week at the E3 Saxo Classic and have iconic status for making or breaking De Ronde in the 10 years since they became the centerpiece of the event. In total, there are 7 cobbled sections and 17 climbs (which are also mostly cobbled). It’s hard to predict where the race will break, but multiple attacks are almost guaranteed, and for certain the finale will see a handful of riders sprinting their heavy legs for one of the biggest prizes of the cycling season.
In the absence of Tadej Pogacar and recently injured Wout Van Aert, two-time winner Mathieu van der Poel is the clear favourite, while Matej and Fred are two of about a dozen riders that can challenge him. That group of potential contenders includes two-time World Champion Julian Alapphilippe, Wednesday’s winner of Dwars door Vlaanderen Matteo Jorgenson, another former Flanders winner Alberto Bettiol, and local favourite Tiesj Benoot, to name but a few.
Our co-leader Fred Wright is excited about taking to the Flanders startling for a fifth time: “I’m really looking forward to Flanders on Sunday. It’s maybe my favourite race of the whole year. Both Matej and I are in great shape and I think we can play to each other’s strengths in the final to get something special from the day. Things haven’t quite fallen into place for us so far this classics block but we are ready to show what we can do on Sunday.”
Sports Director Michał Gołaś also has a positive outlook: “The last couple of races here in Belgium did not go as planned. I think we still have big ambitions and I hope that on Sunday in Flanders all the pieces of the puzzle will come together and finally we get the result we aim for. Also, the whole group still believes we can deliver nice results by having Matej and Fred in the final. We need to ride aggressively and from the other side also pretty smart, to be in the moves when the race starts to get harder. We also need to anticipate and follow bigger moves by the major teams. I think the boys had a good week, we already did recon a couple of times and we know the key moments of the race. We’ll talk about specific roles at the meeting, but we know where the race will get to its crucial phase; we need to stick to our plan and not to look at the others. I believe that we can deliver a great result.”
