Nine riders gained a maximum lead of about four minutes. The peloton raced towards the first hills of the day at a high pace. On the Molenberg, the fifth climb of the day, Team Jumbo-Visma increased the tempo and Nathan van Hooydonck broke away from the peloton. On the Berendries, Mick van Dijke and others joined him. Van Dijke rode an excellent race as a replacement for the sick Wout van Aert.

The nervousness in the race resulted in several crashes. Laporte crashed as well, but the Frenchman was able to continue, tried to catch up with the peloton and managed to rejoin the other favourites. Soon after, the tension in the race increased. The original breakaway group was caught and Van der Poel and Tadej Pogacar rode to the front of the race, with Laporte, Benoot and Van Hooydonck in the chasing group. This trio made several attempts to return to the front of the race, but to no avail.

“I felt good today”, Laporte said. “It’s unfortunate that I crashed. I had to put in considerable effort to make up for the lost ground. A crash always comes at the wrong time, especially in this case. The team worked hard to get me back in a good position. I’m in good shape, which is a good sign for the races to come. I am satisfied with ninth place. It turned out to be the maximum we could achieve.”

Benoot explained Team Jumbo-Visma’s battle plan. “We wanted to attack on the Molenberg. I think that worked out well. Mick and Nathan got away, so we had two guys in front. It was a shame Christophe crashed. It cost the team a lot of energy to bring him back to a reasonable position. I felt good, but unfortunately, I couldn’t keep up when the others accelerated”, the Belgian said.

“I surprised myself today”, Van Dijke said. “For me, the Tour of Flanders is the most beautiful classic. The fact that I was able to attack is very nice. It became clear that I still lack that little bit for a race of this length. But I concluded that I have made progress and am very proud of that. As a team, we have not given up. We have shown that we are strong in this kind of race, and over the last weeks, I have shown that I have something to look forward to in these big classics.”

The Dutchman praised the winner. “Mathieu is a good friend of mine. I wholeheartedly grant him this victory, even though he is wearing a different shirt. As Dutchmen, we can be proud of Mathieu’s and number two Dylan van Baarle’s performance.”