2020 Tour of Flanders Results & Recap
2020 Tour of Flanders is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Van Der Poel wins nail biting Tour of Flanders
Mathieu Van Der Poel (AFC) won the Tour of Flanders in a photo finish against Wout Van Aert today, after breaking away with his rival for 35 kilometres on the challenging Flanders course. The duo were so evenly matched over the final climb they were forced to battle each other in track sprint fashion, with Van Der Poel leading it out from the edge of the barrier.
“I have no words for this. I am speechless,” van der Poel said after the race. “I wasn’t sure – normally I always feel [who won], but I was so broken in the sprint. All of a sudden the line was there and I had to jump. I looked at Wout’s wheel, but neither of us knew. I was looking behind me at Wout, not at the chasers. I knew that the later the sprint was started, the more it was to my advantage. The fact that Wout started late was a sign that he too was tired to death. I caught him perfectly, but he came alongside me. I was afraid I was too late with my jump. I didn’t dare cheer. They told me twice that I had won, but I asked for confirmation ten times.”
Bitterly disappointed, Van Aert had to be content with second.
“I raced as I wanted and as I like to race”, said Van Aert. “Some details could be better, but I’m not going to look for excuses. In the sprint Mathieu was a little bit stronger. I will see that sprint a number of times tonight. Maybe I waited a little too long, because in the last metres I got very close. It was a beautiful race. We really gave the people at home a great spectacle.”
With the reduced field looming just behind, Alexander Kristoff (UAD) took the sprint for third and rounded out the podium.
It wasn't just Van Aert and van der Poel who proved to be a level above the rest in this year's edition of the Flanders Classic. Julian Alaphilippe (DQT) was especially active in the latter part of the race, and made the selection with the two cyclocross champions with 40km to go. Unfortunately, the newly crowned world champion was talking into his radio and could not react fast enough to move out of the way of a moto, and careened into the back of it.
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