Gallery: The favourites face off at the men’s Tour of Flanders
Coming into the final sprint at Sunday’s Tour of Flanders, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) looked a certainty to take back-to-back victories. In the two-up sprint against Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), the Dutch champion should easily have been the better sprinter. But a sprint after more than 250 km of racing is not your normal sprint.
Van der Poel led it out from the front and for a brief moment the pair were virtually neck and neck. And then Van der Poel’s legs gave out in spectacular fashion, allowing Asgreen to surge ahead to take the biggest win of his career. It was a most unlikely ending to a thoroughly engaging day’s racing.
Thankfully for us, Jered and Ashley Gruber and Kristof Ramon were all at De Ronde shooting the wonderful images you see below. Here are the visual highlights from the 105th edition of the men’s Tour of Flanders.
All eyes were on defending champ Mathieu van der Poel at the start. 
Last year’s runner-up Wout van Aert was among the top favourites too. 
Local fans could barely contain their excitement to see Greg Van Avermaet, Oliver Naesen and Lawrence Naesen tackle De Ronde. 
Flemish lions, everywhere you looked. 
There’s another. 
Eventual winner Kasper Asgreen leads the bunch up the Molenberg. 
Tim Declercq was one of several Deceuninck-QuickStep riders to hit the deck with about 100 km to go. 
Asgreen was caught up too … 
… but wasn’t as banged up as Silvan Dillier, who abandoned the race. 
Declercq dragged Asgreen back to the front of the race. 
Not ideal. 
Swiss champ Stefan Kung had a brief touchdown on the Oude Kwaremont … 
… forcing Florian Sénéchal right over to the barriers to avoid going down too. 
Van der Poel and Asgreen got clear over the Oude Kwaremont with 55 km to go … 
… prompting Van Aert to chase them down. He eventually caught the pair. 
Stefan Bissegger led solo up the Koppenberg after being part of the early breakaway. 
World champ Julian Alaphilippe attacked from the bunch … 
… and reeled in Bissegger a short time later. 
A lead group formed over after the Koppenberg … 
… with all the big favourites there. 
On the Taaienberg the race was down to four riders: Van der Poel, Asgreen, Van Aert (obscured) and Alaphilippe. 
An attack from Asgreen between climbs saw Alaphilippe distanced. 
Van der Poel gave it everything on the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont, shelling Van Aert and forcing Asgreen to chase hard after being distanced. 
It was down to Van der Poel and Asgreen on the Paterberg … 
… with Van Aert in the background, trying to catch back on. 
Van der Poel and Asgreen reached the top of the Paterberg together … 
… while others suffered behind. 
Coming into the final sprint, Van der Poel seemed a near certainly to take the win. 
But after leading the sprint from the front, Van der Poel blew up spectacularly .. 
… allowing Asgreen to power through for the biggest win of his career. 
Van der Poel was gracious in defeat. 
Van der Poel was second while Greg Van Avermaet took third after edging clear of a chase group in the closing kilometres. Van Avermaet’s now been on the podium four times at Flanders without a win. 
Asgreen’s won some races before, but nothing as big as De Ronde van Vlaanderen.
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