{"id":231337,"date":"2026-03-03T17:45:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/florian-vermeersch-was-too-generous-to-mathieu-van-der-poel-sean-kelly-questions-tactics-on-display-at-opening-weekend\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:45:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:45:39","slug":"florian-vermeersch-was-too-generous-to-mathieu-van-der-poel-sean-kelly-questions-tactics-on-display-at-opening-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/03\/florian-vermeersch-was-too-generous-to-mathieu-van-der-poel-sean-kelly-questions-tactics-on-display-at-opening-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Florian Vermeersch was too generous to Mathieu van der Poel&#8217; \u2013 Sean Kelly questions tactics on display at Opening Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p id=\"3a8ba7fe-2313-4d6b-aadd-2223d03d2351\">After the dust had settled on <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/omloop-het-nieuwsblad-mathieu-van-der-poel-storms-to-solo-victory-with-stinging-muur-van-geraardsbergen-attack\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/omloop-het-nieuwsblad-mathieu-van-der-poel-storms-to-solo-victory-with-stinging-muur-van-geraardsbergen-attack\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/omloop-het-nieuwsblad-mathieu-van-der-poel-storms-to-solo-victory-with-stinging-muur-van-geraardsbergen-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mathieu van der Poel&#8217;s dominant Omloop het Nieuwsblad victory<\/a> last weekend, many looked at whether his race rivals could&#8217;ve done more to thwart the Dutchman from adding the Belgian Classic to his already vast palmar\u00e8s.<\/p>\n<p>Our <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/spring-classics\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/spring-classics\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/spring-classics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spring Classics<\/a> columnist and nine-time Monument winner, Sean Kelly, was one of those voices, urging eventual runner-up <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/florian-vermeersch\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/florian-vermeersch\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/florian-vermeersch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florian Vermeersch<\/a> (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to have played it differently with the Alpecin-Premier Tech leader in the final stages of Saturday&#8217;s race.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<aside data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"hawk-root\"\/>\n<p id=\"3a8ba7fe-2313-4d6b-aadd-2223d03d2351-2\" class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Writing in his <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/sean-kellys-classics-column-sometimes-you-have-to-be-a-glass-cranker\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/sean-kellys-classics-column-sometimes-you-have-to-be-a-glass-cranker\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/sean-kellys-classics-column-sometimes-you-have-to-be-a-glass-cranker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">member-exclusive <em>Cyclingnews<\/em> column<\/a> on Monday, the Irishman described his initial reaction to Vermeersch cooperating with <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/mathieu-van-der-poel\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/mathieu-van-der-poel\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/mathieu-van-der-poel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Van der Poel<\/a> as others in the group sat on and failed to offer a turn.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"clear-both pt-3 pb-4 mb-4 border-solid border-y border-neutral-300\">\n        <span class=\"font-article-heading block pb-3 !text-base font-bold uppercase sm:text-sm text-[#333]\"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;I was watching it, wondering, \u2018Why is he riding that strongly with him?\u2019 He was too generous, in my eyes,&#8221; Kelly recalled.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to cite <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/stop-riding-at-the-front-when-van-der-poel-and-pogacar-are-there-tiesj-benoot-calls-for-riders-to-rethink-tactics-at-the-classics\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/stop-riding-at-the-front-when-van-der-poel-and-pogacar-are-there-tiesj-benoot-calls-for-riders-to-rethink-tactics-at-the-classics\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/stop-riding-at-the-front-when-van-der-poel-and-pogacar-are-there-tiesj-benoot-calls-for-riders-to-rethink-tactics-at-the-classics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tiesj Benoot&#8217;s recent comments about the formula for beating the likes of Tadej Poga\u010dar and Van der Poel<\/a> this spring, which starts with refusing to collaborate with them when the race begins to splinter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Riding in Belgium, in the opening Classic of the season, the home support will have naturally emboldened Vermeersch&#8217;s mindset, but that&#8217;s where the rider and his team car should&#8217;ve looked at the bigger picture, argued Kelly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[The sports director] can give you that word in your ear to say okay, just take it easy, if you\u2019re doing turns just do a very short turn, leave Mathieu to do the bulk of the work, maybe skip a turn here and there, and see if you can get over the Muur with him.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-tJT6onRdh96iKo4BJdxnBi\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-tJT6onRdh96iKo4BJdxnBi slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Should that situation have played out, then the seven-time Paris-Nice winner believes a sprint always offers up a chance for the underdog, regardless of how strong the main favourite is on the day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&#8220;If you do manage to get over the Muur with Van der Poel, you go into the final with him, and then you never know what might happen,&#8221; Kelly added, before addressing the theory that Vermeersch was happy to ride for a safe podium given he&#8217;s out of contract at the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you put [Van der Poel] under pressure, and he has to ride, and it\u2019s suspense right to the very end [&#8230;] his market value would be a good bit higher than it is right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><em><strong>Subscribe to Cyclingnews to read more from Sean Kelly&#8217;s Classics column, including his assessment of Van der Poel&#8217;s early-season form, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney&#8217;s tactical dilemma against Demi Vollering, and the alarming spate of crashes across the weekend, plus unlimited access to our unrivalled Spring Classics coverage and beyond. <\/strong><\/em><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/sub24\/?utm_source=Referral+link&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=SC26\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/sub24\/?utm_source=Referral+link&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=SC26\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/sub24\/?utm_source=Referral+link&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=SC26\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Find out more.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/racing\/florian-vermeersch-was-too-generous-to-mathieu-van-der-poel-sean-kelly-questions-tactics-on-display-at-opening-weekend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the dust had settled on Mathieu van der Poel&#8217;s dominant Omloop het Nieuwsblad victory last weekend, many looked at whether his race rivals could&#8217;ve done more to thwart the Dutchman from adding the Belgian Classic to his already vast palmar\u00e8s. Our Spring Classics columnist and nine-time Monument winner, Sean Kelly, was one of those [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6804],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}