Tour of Flanders 2025 men’s race LIVE – Tadej Pogacar hits out for glory the last time up the Oude Kwaremont

1. Tadej Pogacar 5'58'41"
2. Mads Pedersen +1'01"
3. Mathieu van der Poel "
4. Wout van Aert "
5. Jasper Stuyven +1'04"
6. Tiesj Benoot +1'51"
7. Stefan Kung +1'53"
8. Filippo Ganna +2'19"
9. Biniam Girmay "
10. Ivan Garcia "

Stuyven leads out and his team-mate Pedersen launches first, from the back of the line. Van Aert had little to nothing left.

And on to Roubaix.

They'll be able to see him, but they cannot catch him. In fact there's nothing they can do except fight among themselves. And the attacks begin with Stuyven.

This is wild. Behind they know it's lost, seemingly on a club run. Further back still Matteo Jorgenseon is dropping out of the company of Benoot and Kung.

Mathieu van der Poel is not about to make history. We're at the "barring incident or accident" (Credit: Rob Hatch) point of the race.

He's cooperating very well with himself. The five behind are playing for the podium, I'm calling it.

Obviously we don't know how much any of them has left. Adam Blythe thinks Van der Poel has either blown, or would rather Pogacar win than any of the others. It's bonkers, but not completely illogical.

They should be able to do it, but should doesn't butter any parnsips. The gap we're seeing is 30 seconds and it's going the wrong way for them.

It's 1 v 4 but these aren't the numbers that matter to this man. He's defied the odds plenty of times before.

They can't afford to ball-watch. Everyone has to ride here, because Pogacar is committed.

And they are, for now, as they pass the VIPs at the top of the Kwaremont. No time to give them a wave. The gap looks good, but it's not huge. It's all Van Aert driving the chase. Where has he found these legs?

Because Pogacar is winding things up on the Kwaremont, and for the first time this season Van der Poel is struggling to hold the wheel.

A good move, well timed you'd think.

With Benoot and Jorgenson bringing Stefan Kung up. The impetus has drained out of the five star front five, but it won't be for long. We have another Kwaremont / Paterberg combo coming up.

And Jasper Stuyven. It's not over after all. We have ourselves a very real race!

Slipping back quickly to the Van Aert group. Pogacar and Van der Poel are moving away, but the others are still in the mix. Jasper Stuyven can be leaned on to assist.

The numbers have made the difference, and the two front groups are at least in the same shot. The cohesion doesn't quite seem to be there, though.

Pogacar, Van de Poel and Mads Pedersen have a lead of around a dozen seconds and it's not rising exponentially but given form, records and reputation you'd say these are the strongest. Does Mads Pedersen have what it takes to stay in touch and survive the inevitable accelerations of the other two? He doesn't need to do more than that, I think we can agree.