In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by former Classics stalwart Mitch Docker and the journalist Richard Abraham, as we look back at last weekend’s pre-Ronde van Vlaanderen appetisers, the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem.

Friday saw the latest masterclass from Mathieu van der Poel in E3, which  underlined his status as the outstanding favourite for De Ronde. Forty-eight hours later, though, Mads Pedersen’s victory over Van der Poel in Gent-Wevelgem led some to wonder whether Lidl-Trek had happened upon the perfect blueprint for defeating the Dutchman - not that the strategy will be easy to implement on Sunday. 

In the final part of the podcast, we hear from a rider for whom just being on the startline on Sunday will represent a personal triumph - the Dane Michael Valgren, whose career was almost ended by a horror crash in the 2022 Route Occitanie. 

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The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.