Tour of Flanders 2020: Van der Poel outguns Van Aert in two-up sprint

The Tour of Flanders comes down to a two-up sprint finish. Mathieu van der Poel outguns Wout van Aert in a millimetre sprint before Alexander Kristoff sprints to third place. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results Tour of Flanders 2020

1. Mathieu van der Poel (nld)
2. Wout van Aert (bel)
3. Alexander Kristoff (nor)
4. Anthony Turgis (fra)
5. Yves Lampaert (bel)
6. Dimitri Claeys (bel)
7. Oliver Naesen (bel)
8. Dylan van Baarle (nld)
9. John Degenkolb (ger)
10. Tiesj Benoot (bel)

Race report
The break establishes itself after 20 kilometres of hard racing. Gijs Van Hoecke, Samuele Battistella, Danny van Poppel, Dimitri Peyskens, Fabio Van den Bossche and Gregor Mühlberger open up a gap of 9 minutes before the peloton takes control.

While Stefan Küng loses contact at the foot of the penultimate ascent of the Paterberg, the lead group is brought back shortly after the summit.

Julian Alaphilippe strikes with Anthony Turgis on the Koppenberg. Some twenty riders – Van Aert, Bettiol, Asgreen, Naesen and Van der Poel – rejoin them before the World Champion gives it another go. Van der Poel is the first to regain contact, while Van Aert bridges across on the Taaienberg. The trio reaches the top 9 seconds ahead of the chasers.

Alaphilippe hits a motorbike and crashes out of contention with 36 kilometres remaining.

Van der Poel and Van Aert widen the lead to more than 1 minute at the last climb, the Paterberg, and the race boils down to a sprint finish in Oudenaarde.

Van der Poel wins the Tour of Flanders with the tiniest of margins.

Other interesting reads: route and start list 2020 Tour of Flanders.