E3 Saxo Bank Classic and Gent-Wevelgem: Stories to follow and riders to watch

Rejoice, for the cobbled classics are here.

After the amuse-bouche of February’s “opening weekend,” the northern classics hit full pace this week with Friday’s E3 Saxo-Bank Classic and the men’s and women’s Gent-Wevelgem.

With the E3 Classic making for a condensed Tour of Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem notorious for its off-road tracks and mammoth distance, this week is set for some serious drama. Here are Jim Cotton and Andrew Hood‘s top tips for who to watch and what to watch out for at this week’s marquee one-day races:

Storylines to watch:

Andrew: The top thing I’ll be watching is if Deceuninck-Quick-Step has the strength to play its tried-and-true tactical card of swarming the zone. As in any classics season, the “Wolfpack” brings many cards to play, but I’m still not sure they’ll have the horsepower to go long and deep, especially at these heavier races at E3 and Gent-Wevelgem. The first is a “mini-Flanders” and G-W is much harder now that the distance hovers around 250km. I’m still not convinced that without Alaphilippe that anyone else on DQS can match “VanderWout” when the big flares start coming.

For Gent-Wevelgem women’s race, the SD Worx vs. Trek-Segafredo face-off takes center stage, but there’s much more to the classics than these two. Movistar, Liv Racing, and Ceratizit-WNT all bring riders with form and experience to the cobbles Sunday, and it will be good to see if one of these secondary contender teams can break the stranglehold that the two big players have on the classics so far.

Dark-horse contenders:

It would be too easy to talk about Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert again. So who are our dark-horse contenders for both E3 and the men’s and women’s Gent-Wevelgem?

E3 Saxo Bank Classic

Andrew: Kasper Asgreen. This guy has a huge engine, but it seems like he’s been on idle so far in 2021. Since we cannot go to the race and gossip with all the DS’s and riders, it’s been harder to get a handle on who’s going well and who isn’t. If Asgreen has been holding back, we could see him pop over the weekend.

Jim: Seeing as we’re going dark horses I’m going far off the grid with Antony Turgis. Who? That French fella who always pops into the top-10 having been overlooked. Second at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, 10th at Milano-Sanremo, and with Niki Terpstra at his side at Total Direct Énergie, I won’t be surprised to see at least a top-3 from Turgis on Friday. For another pick with a very slim chance – Tom Pidcock. Sure, he’s a neopro with little experience of senior cobblestone racing, but the kid is capable of anything, and E3 is a little shorter than the likes of Flanders and Roubaix may give him room to bring his full swagger to the stones.

Gent Wevelgem women’s

Jim: Can I call a rider as decorated as Marianne Vos a dark horse? Seems a strange thing to say, but given Vos is racing with a young new team rather than big hitters like Trek-Segafredo or SD Worx, I’m going to say she is. Northern classics aren’t Vos’ ‘thing’ compared to all-out sprints or hilly races, but she’s looked on top form and threatening as ever at both Strade Bianche and Alfredo Binda this year. While Trek and SD Worx are watching each other, I see “the boss” adding one more to her packed palmarès Sunday.

Gent-Wevelgem men’s

Jim: He’s not really shown himself yet, but I’m going Alexander Kristoff. If any race is going to be won by a rider with big guts and an even bigger engine, it’s Gent-Wevelgem, and the grizzled Norweigan has won it before and regularly finishes in the front groups. With Matteo Trentin as a foil, Kristoff can get away with missing the front selection and doing his trademark tactic of slowly but surely winching his way back. If not Kristoff, I would say Mads Pedersen repeats his 2020 win. He’s got the form and Trek-Segafredo has the momentum.