He breaks the cobblestones with great blows of his crank. Placed in the saddle when his rivals swallowed by the slope have to dismount. The image, in the formidable Koppenberg, left its mark. The tricky passage had seen others in the epic history of the Tour of Flanders but the mountain, like everyone else, was impressed by the demonstration of force of a rider releasing the power of a draft horse during an unstoppable attack, leaving his rivals deprived of grip, of momentum, brutally thrown off course, puppets suddenly dislocated, in search of a buoy after having been carried away by the fury of the tide. At 29, the Dutchman Mathieu Van der Poel, a mature runner, has tamed his enthusiasm and his strength, learned to no longer run in a disorderly manner.
He no longer scatters, feels the rush and delivers the fatal blow with composure. Before letting his endurance speak for himself to dance in the rain. Without the slightest grin on a smooth face. Impervious to fatigue, unsinkable…
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