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EF Education rider Alberto Bettiol’s first pro win is the Tour of Flanders

Van der Poel survives dramatic crash to come fourth

April 7, 2019
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In Sundays’ thrilling Tour of Flanders, Alberto Bettiol of EF Education earned his maiden professional win in the second Monument of the year. Bettiol attacked on the final passage of the Oude Kwaremont and held off a disunited fifteen rider chase. He’s the first Italian to win the Ronde van Vlaanderen in twelve years.

The Route

Over 270-km the men’s field headed southwest from Antwerp before a couple of circuits around Oudenaarde. This is where the real action began. The race had five sections of cobbles and 17 climbs, but six of those climbs–most of them cobbled–and one set of cobbles were in the final 50-km.

The Koppenberg kicked off the last six hellingen. The Taaienberg at 38-km to go was a fierce 650-metre long power climb with max gradients of 18 percent. Next came Kruisberg, a kilometre of increasingly steep pitches. The last two climbs, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg, the riders had faced earlier in the race, and one followed hard on the heels of the other. Oude Kwaremont was 2.2-km of up to 9.8 percent. Finally came Paterberg. A right hand turn slows the riders before 700-metres of brutality. The selection will have been made by the end of the Paterberg, and the selected will have 14-km to duke it out.

The men’s Tour of Flanders course.

Houle in the Breakaway

Almost immediately, four riders bolted up the road, and in the middle of the action was Canadian Hugo Houle. The quartet nabbed a maximum lead of 8:30. On the first passage of Oude Kwaremont, Houle attacked to take the GP Stig Broeckx prize of 5000 Euros to donate to the charity of his choice.

In the first half of the race one of the favourites and reigning champion Niki Terpstra crashed out.

By the trip up the legendary Muur, Houle and company had only a 1:30 gap. They would finally be lassoed with 93-km remaining.

Into the Final 60-km

Numerous attacks and digs failed to stay clear on the way to the second ascent of Oude Kwaremont. Just before the road kicked up, Mathieu van der Poel suffered a nasty and somewhat weird crash after his steerer broke when he hit the curb. Hand up to signal a problem, Van der Poel’s front wheel hit a divot in the sidewalk and he went over the handlebars hard. However, he was able to continue.

Stijn Vandenbergh of AG2R and Sep Vanmarcke of EF Education pulled out a gap on the Oude Kwaremont. Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Kasper Asgreen, who had crashed earlier, made it over to make it a trio on the Paterberg.

On the brutal Koppenberg with 46-km to go, Vanderbergh, Vanmarcke and Asgreen retained their 20-second gap. Van der Poel made his way through the elite chase peloton, even pulling it at one point.

Before the 2-km Mariaborrestraat section of cobbles, Sky’s Dylan van Baarle bridged to make a quartet up front. On Taaienberg Vanderbergh lost contact, while Jasper Stuyven led the chase.

Kruisberg/Hotond, Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg

On the way to 2.5-km Kruisberg/Hotond, several riders skipped away to try to bridge. On the cobbled part of the climb, van Baarle tried to rid himself of the others, but only dropped Vanmarcke. Van der Poel and Bob Jungels put in digs in the chase. Zdenek Stybar and Sonny Colbrelli fell away.

The leading duo had a 17-second lead at the foot of the Oude Kwaremont for the final time. Once it was brought to heel on the cobbled grades, the group was 20-strong. Here Bettiol surged away. The Italian had a huge gap heading towards Paterberg. Van der Poel attacked over the top.

Fourteen kilometres to stay away

Van der Poel was between Bettiol and Alejandro Valverde, Greg Van Avermaet and Oliver Naesen. More fellows joined the chase, which wouldn’t cooperate. Bettiol had 10-seconds with 10-km to go. Behind, van der Poel almost crashed again on a curb.

While Bettiol’s teammate Seb Langeveld blocked in the chase, another, Rigoberto Uran Uran, cheered him on.

Team principle Jonathan Vaughters was gobsmacked.

Bettiol hung tough to take a famous win. Asgreen attacked to come runner-up on his Tour of Flanders debut. Last year another Dane, Mads Pederson, came second.

Both Canadians, Hugo Houle and Antoine Duchesne, finished the grueling race.

After the finish, Bettiol praised his team and warned, “You should look more for the pink at the front.”


2019 Tour of Flanders
1) Alberto Bettiol (Italy/EF Education First) 6:18:49
2) Kasper Asgreen (Denmark/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +0:14
3) Alexander Kristoff (Norway/UAE-Emirates) +0:17
85) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana) +8:46
100) Antoine Duchesne (Canada/Groupama-FDJ) s.t.