We saw favorites like Skjelmose, Pidcock or Teuns give up very early because of the cold and rain. Sometimes the fittest runners are the ones who suffer the most from these conditions. But generally speaking, this reduces about 80% of the peloton.
Aside from the winner Stephen Williams, who will not have the backlash, and a runner like Maxim Van Gils, who will also have morale after his third place, the Flèche will leave traces in the organizations. Even if there are three days between the two races, recovery promises to be complicated before Liège-Bastogne-Liège for most of the peloton. Not to mention the fact that some could get sick.
MVDP can win the Doyenne…. but not against a great Pogacar.
Those who will benefit from all this are… the two big favorites: Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel. They trained in excellent conditions (Monaco for the first, Spain for the second) and still have an additional advantage over their competitors. We already knew that Pogacar was a level above the others and he perhaps finds himself even a little more favorite than he already was.
Even if his team was not impressive this Wednesday, the Slovenian will be the man to beat on the Doyenne. Van der Poel will try to do his best to hold out as long as possible but facing a great Pogacar, I have my reservations about his ability to fight a real battle. I think MVDP can win the Doyenne one day, but maybe not against the Slovenian phenomenon. We saw during the Strade Bianche – where the conditions were also bad – that Pogacar did not need many days of racing to be in good shape. Everything seems to come together for him to win. But last year, they said the same thing and he ended up on the ground with a broken scaphoid. This is proof that a race is never won before the start.
