It’s definitely what WvA should do, but I’m not sure I remember him doing it. Flanders and last year’s CX Worlds were slow speed sprints and MvDP just has much more punch from a slow speed. WvA wins when a third rider is involved and leads the sprint out (Pogocar and Pidcock being examples).
Huge crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen today took out basically the entire favorites group. Wout, Mads, Jasper Stuyven all crashed out of the race. Looked pretty bad - potentially putting them all at risk of not evening being able to start RVV this weekend. 
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Bad day for Cycling
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WVA - Multiple Fractures (unofficial)
Stuyven - Broken Collarbone
Girmay - No Fractures
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Confirmed - Wout is out for remainder of classics. Broken collarbone and multiple ribs.
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Mvdp wins all classics now
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Brutal…Wout’s cries of anguish were gut-wrenching.
Jorgensen scores a big win and it is completely overshadowed by the crash.
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I hate that the video producing teams seem to universally decide to show the aftermath of these crashes
This was just the latest example, not nearly the worst
As for the race…fantastic and deserving winner, but the wind is out of my sails for the next two weeks, such a shame to see so many contenders removed from the rest of the classics so quickly😢
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Not that anyone here is suggesting otherwise, but I always keep in mind that the commentators have no control of the video feed. They have to talk to the stream of what they see.
They’ll often express frustration at having to watch footage that dwells on crashes as well.
Today’s was particularly painful to watch.
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Jumbo lost. Jumbo won.
Bummer that WVA is out for the remainder of the classics season, and probably the Giro.
Jorgenson’s win was excellent, but big props to Benoot for playing excellent defense in the chasing group. That’s not easy work.
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My heart goes out for him. That really sucks. Him sitting out for all of those early races I was hoping for some really competitiveness between him and MVDP.
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Does the wva injury make it harder for mvdp to win on Sunday?
Presumably visma won’t be interested in pacing the peloton and will be attacking with more riders, playing a higher variance strategy
For all that his team is stronger every year, I don’t see them as capable of that level of control without support from other teams
He’s still the prohibitive favorite, but the chances of a strong anticipation attack getting too much time and a 2 or 3 star favorite winning seems to have gone up
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Riders walking up the Koppenburg! Epic.
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I didn’t think we’d see anything like that again!
Not a bad race but could have been so much better with WVA. You’d think that he’d at least have been strong enough to keep pace with Jorgenson when MDVP got separation on the Koppenberg and then with the 2 of them relaying they’d surely be able to close that initial separation.
I don’t think the final outcome would have been different necessarily, but the last hour could have been a lot of more exciting.
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Agree, and also agree I’m not sure the end result would have been any different. There are only a few guys that could handle the effort the Koppenberg required and recover from it quick enough to keep it rolling - WVA and a healthy Pedersen are 2 of them, and maybe Pog (but I’m not sure how he’d handle a slick Koppenberg).
Can’t wrap my head around treks strategy and use of pederson. Mind boggling to me, maybe some Galaxy brain thinking I am missing, but ugh
Don’t think there was any beating mvdp straight up today, but I think we all knew that going in. The confusing thing to me is that there are ways to beat a superior rider with anticipation attacks and team tactics…just a startling lack of pressure on the team
Regardless, incredible performance by the best one day racer we’ve got. The battle for the podium was also very entertaining, I love these slow motion sprints between completely exhausted riders. Was a hard day for everyone
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I must admit I’m preferring watching women’s races lately 
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The last 50 km of the women’s race was some of the best racing of the season so far. Couldn’t agree more
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While the right call, kinda gutted for Matthews to get relegated. The irony of him not shutting the door in MSR and potentially costing him the win and then deviating from his line in Flanders to get relegated off the podium. Ooof.
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