“Those cobbles are cushions for him”: Cyclists impressed by Van der Poel taking off vest while turning on cobbled climb; Cab driver turns left without indicating, almost hits Jeremy Vine… and laughs it off; No AI Wout van ‘Art’ + more on the live blog

Talk about someone at the top of their game. “Nobody can match him. Nobody can come close,” as the commentators said. Three one-day races in 2025, three wins. Take a bow, Mathieu van der Poel.

 

 

 

 

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Coming off the back of the E3 and Tour of Flanders double from last year, Van der Poel has passed the first cobbled test before the Ronde showdown with Tadej Pogačar, and if you were to ask your live blog host, he’d put his money on the flying Dutchman right now.

With an early crash catching him out and separating him from the lead by almost three minutes, a superb effort from the Alpecin-Deceuninck team saw him well-placed to follow Mads Pedersen’s first attack on the Taaienberg, before he left the five-man breakaway licking their wounds with a blistering burst of acceleration on the Oude Kwaremont.

From there on, it was a breezy ride, sealed at the end with a gleeful thumbs up from the former world champion, as he crossed the finish line over a minute ahead of Mads Pedersen, followed by Filippo Ganna, who marked another podium finish after Milan-Sanremo, finishing more than two minutes behind the leader.

It's a casual thumbs-up from Mathieu van der Poel, who continues to dominate with ANOTHER Classics win at E3 👍

Mads Pedersen and Filippo Ganna round off the podium 👏 pic.twitter.com/iBglEQ3gGD

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) March 28, 2025

Van der Poel said at the finish: “I’m very, very happy. We had a tough race with team, but I have to thank my whole team for the amazing job they did today. I was really motivated to finish it off.”

Yes, it's BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5 presenter Jeremy Vine, who sheds a light on his dramatic, jazzily edited encounters with London’s vast array of careless, distracted, and often dangerous drivers, and also talks about how he was once, in his own words, “car-brained”...

> road.cc Podcast episode 100: “I’m impartial on everything – except my own safety”: Jeremy Vine on his cycling “radicalisation”, Twitter trolls, the “gaslighting of cyclists”, and why bad streets and bad drivers cause road danger

It’s as the saying goes: The more things change, the more they stay the same…

Just like Saturday, just like Cipressa and Poggio, a familiar sight has just unfolded at the E3 Saxo this afternoon. Just how Pogačar took the onus on himself to separate the cream from the pack, today it was another former world champion who has decided to try the same trick.

And just how he held on to Pogačar’s wheel and never let go, Mathieu van der Poel is now glued to Pedersen’s wheel, with Filippo Ganna once again digging deep and playing the role of the chasing party.

It's nearly a repeat of Milano-Sanremo 🥵

Mads Pedersen attacks on the Taaienberg... and Mathieu van der Poel follows, with Flippo Ganna in pursuit 💪💥 pic.twitter.com/1ZHZh9aljR

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) March 28, 2025

How will it all unfold? We’ll have the answers with you soon…

A (not) good ol’ left-turning driver ignoring to check for cyclists to kick off the Friday blog…

This time, it was Jeremy Vine who was on the receiving end of the driving manoeuvre that we’ve seen way too many times here at road.cc. The broadcaster shared the video on social media this morning and wrote: “Can anyone explain why so-called 'professional drivers' are among the most dangerous users of our roads? This taxi driver LAUGHED instead of indicating.”

The driver, who slows down and comes to a halt at a Belisha beacon crossing in London, turns left without using their indicator, nor without checking for anyone on the left.

> Bike to Bedlam: James Blunt calls for “patience and tolerance” between cyclists and drivers after Jeremy Vine’s latest cycle lane encounter with delivery van – but Vine says “sharing the space results in 1,700 road deaths a year”

Cue Jeremy Vine blaring his deafening horns (sure you know which one by know), and the driver panicking and remembering to turn on his left indicator, as the BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5 presenter says: “You’re not going left are you? You didn’t signal,” before riding away, muttering a dejected “incredible” under his breath.

Can anyone explain why so-called “professional drivers” are among the most dangerous users of our roads? This taxi driver LAUGHED instead of indicating pic.twitter.com/mduEMSwSOP

— Jeremy Vine | Here, on Insta & Facebook (@theJeremyVine) March 28, 2025

David Kirkwood replied under the video: “Our authorities inculcate into the public’s collective psyche the notion that public highway is primarily for driving on. The driving public regard the non driving public as getting in the way - the reality is the opposite, but no one in authority can admit to that.”

Mustapha, meanwhile, said: “They don’t care, plain and simple,” to which a reply from Jerry read: “Why would they care when the police don’t care, the CPS don’t care, and the courts don’t care?”

At the beginning of this year, Vine had revealed that his new year’s resolution would be “not to get cross when I'm cycling and drivers do things like this”, after a similar case of a van driver turning across a cycle lane, not giving the cyclist priority as the Highway Code advises.

Who would have thought that it’d be incredibly difficult to maintain your resolution when drivers keep doing stuff like this on roads…

With Wout van Aert finally joining the party after an altitude training camp with his participation at the E3 Saxo Classic today, here’s an interesting artwork from Red Bull Belgium.

 

 

 

 

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At least it’s not made with generative AI…

Monsieur Paris-Roubaix is not all that impressed with the excitement and buzz among cycling fans with the news that world champion and three-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar  would be racing the Hell of the North for the first time in his storied career in two weeks’ time.

Former Belgian cyclist and legendary classics rider Roger De Vlaeminck, who boasts a palmarès comparable with very few (four Paris-Roubaix, three Milan-Sanremo, two Il Lombardia, and a Ronde and Liège-Bastogne-Liège each), has expressed his disappointment at the current crop of riders cutting down races in the fear of “burning out” quickly.

> It’s happening! Tadej Pogačar confirmed to make Paris-Roubaix debut, as world champion skips upcoming cobbled classics to focus on epic Flanders-Roubaix double

Roger “Monsieur Paris-Roubaix” de Vlaeminck

Speaking to Belgian news website Sporza, De Vlaeminck said that he didn’t get all the hype projected by Tadej Pogačar’s participation in Paris-Roubaix. “It’s like you’re suddenly very happy now… I think it’s all normal, you know,” he said, adding that he was having a hard time understanding why Pogačar removed today’s E3 Saxo Classic and Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem from his programme.

He added: “We rode all the races in our time, didn’t we? I rode at least 120 races, about 15 cross-country races and a few six-day races. I myself have won Tirreno-Adriatico six times and in those years also three times Milan-Sanremo.

“Why should that not be possible now? That the riders now fear that they will burn out too quickly? Am I burned out myself, perhaps?”

According to De Vlaeminck, it perhaps has to do with team bosses playing a major role in determining the riders’ schedule, as was evident when UAE Team Emirates boss Mauro Gianetti warned Pogačar against jeopardising his Tour de France chances, and potentially ruining his season, by crashing on the cobbles.

“Those riders don't choose, it's the bosses around them who do. We rode everything,” he added. “Winning 512 races like I do, is that no longer possible these days? Why not? Of course not if you only ride 400.

“We have also earned our living well, but we also had to ride a lot of races for it. It sometimes makes me sick.”

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