For the first time in a Monument Classic, we will have together the 4 best Classics riders of the World Tour: they are Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel. The latter only announced his participation on Wednesday, revealing that he had begun preparing for this race several months ago.

Last Thursday there was the final reconnaissance on the pavé for Remco Evenepoel, who had started working on the Ronde course since last December together with his Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe and some teammates. Remco is shown in a video posted on social media crossing the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg dressed in black, while getting familiar with the Ronde, but he will have to contend with three riders who know every centimeter of this race.

Evenepoel has learned to know the pavé of Flanders through many hours of training, but the race will be something else entirely and certainly Pogacar, van der Poel and Van Aert will try to make it a hard race from the start. There will be many curves, changes of direction and the narrow sections found before each stretch of pavé, not to mention the climbs that could put the Belgian in difficulty. From a strategic point of view, Remco's presence could be an advantage for Wout van Aert, for example. If Pogacar tries to make the difference on the Kwaremont and the Paterberg, Evenepoel is a rider who can respond to him: both Van Aert and Van der Poel will be able to benefit from this. Most likely we will have a different finale thanks to Evenepoel's presence and looking at the weather forecasts we know that in the last 30 km of the race the riders should have a tailwind.

Looking at what has happened in recent weeks, we can say that cycling has changed and so have the races, those Classics, have changed their function. We were used to seeing races like the E3 Saxo Classic and In Flanders Fields, better known as Gand-Wevelgem, as races in preparation for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, while now they are Classics that top riders want to win. In fact we saw Van der Poel's triumph at Harelbeke and Van Aert fighting at both the E3 and In Flanders Fields and finally at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

This applies somewhat to all riders, with the exception of Tadej Pogacar, the winner of last Flanders and super favorite for this year as well, who however did not race these Classics that precede Ronde and Roubaix. But this does not mean we should not take into account what happened in the last races, on the contrary, looking at what Van der Poel and Van Aert did, we can say we had the opportunity to make careful assessments.

We saw a very strong Mathieu van der Poel, who won the E3 Saxo Classic in a magnificent way. The Dutchman is still considered one of the main challengers to Pogacar. In fact, it is precisely for the Monument Classics that Van der Poel trains all winter. At Milan-Sanremo he crashed and had a bad day. But let's not forget that at Harelbeke he recorded his best time ever  dominating the race. At Wevelgem he never gave his best and didn't have the right freshness. Therefore, we cannot draw many conclusions from that race for the Ronde, but that breakaway in a pair with Van Aert tells us a lot, considering the statements at the end of the race by the Fleming. 

As for Van Aert, it must be said that he made an extraordinary comeback at Milan-Sanremo, finishing third behind Pidcock and Pogacar, at In Flanders Fields he had to surrender to Alpecin's strategy, then at Dwars door Vlaanderen, after a truly impeccable performance, in the finale he had to bow to Filippo Ganna, who despite various mechanical problems, did not have to use all the energy that the Fleming instead had to put on the table. Van Aert without a shadow of a doubt was the moral winner at Dwars door Vlaanderen. The way he accelerated after every curve, always at full throttle: you have to be very good to do that. Of course, he would have preferred to win, but afterwards he didn't even make a scene. So we can say that Van Aert is in splendid form, but at the same time he still hasn't won. Now there's the Tour of Flanders and it cannot be compared to Harelbeke and Waregem.

On one hand, there is still a big difference between surviving a single stretch of the Kemmelberg and facing a Tour of Flanders with sixteen climbs and seven pavé sectors. Unfortunately, due to a series of misfortunes, Van Aert has not shown in recent years that he is up to the level of the two best specialists of one-day races,  he is in brilliant form and if he has the right day he can beat everyone.

Returning to the number one favorite, namely Tadej Pogacar, the world champion is the strongest man of the moment. It is the first time after his impressive victories at Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo that the Slovenian returns as a protagonist.

His power is so superior to that of others that in the end he manages to exhaust everyone and break away alone. The last time Pogacar managed to do this was at the Tour of Flanders, on the final climb of the Oude Kwaremont, a gradient that suits him more for its length. Pogacar will not be alone and his will perhaps be the strongest team in the race, with Florian Vermeersch, one of the three best riders of recent weeks and at his side will be Julius Johansen, Nils Politt and Antonio Morgado.

Van der Poel, on the other hand, will be able to count on Florian Sénéchal, Jonas Geens and Edward Planckaert, while Wout van Aert  will have Christophe Laporte, Matthew Brennan and Per Strand Hagenes at his side, second place finisher at the E3 Saxo Classic. Although Laporte considers himself a co-leader and the Visma | Lease a Bike team can field multiple cards, at the E3 Saxo Classic he was forced to slow down sharply when Van der Poel attacked. This doesn't give us much confidence in the Frenchman's climbing abilities, but he does have an excellent sprint. 

As for Red Bull – Bora Hansgrohe, at Evenepoel's side will be Tim van Dijke and his brother Mick, Laurence Pithie and of course Gianni Vermeersch, key man for Evenepoel.