'Winning is not as easy as everyone thinks' — Mathieu van der Poel after second Tour of Flanders victory

Dutchman says he was calm heading into the sprint on Sunday

Mathieu van der Poel
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Mathieu van der Poel has raced the Tour of Flanders four times. Out of those four, he has won twice, come second once, and on the other occasion finished fourth. It's quite some record.

On Sunday, the Dutchman won the biggest bike race in Belgium for the second time in three years, mastering the sprint in the final kilometre to bring home victory.

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Adam Becket
News editor

Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.

Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to cycling.