Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceunick) made no excuses after losing the Tour of Flanders to "clearly stronger" Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), despite crashing at high speed during the race and his revealing that illness had affected his trainiing.
The Dutchman appeared to be ill as he spoke after winning the E3 Saxo Classic, but played down what he thought then was "just a blocked nose."
Alpecin-Deceuninck's head DS Christoph Roodhooft also tried to put to bed rumours of Van der Poel not being 100 per cent when he shut down a question from Cyclingnews about how he was doing health-wise before Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday.
Once the dust had settled after an attritional day in the Flanders sun, and Van der Poel had been denied a record fourth Ronde title by a superior Pogačar, Van der Poel and Roodhooft told the truth of how much he suffered last week ansd how it impacted his race.
"He happened to send me a message on April 1 that he was very ill. I told him 'Don't joke, OK', but he took antibiotics for three days," said Roodhooft to Sporza at the team bus.
"It was an unpleasant run-up. Being sick is never fun and he missed a few training sessions.
"At E3 he was already snotty. We had the feeling that things were turning in the right direction, but it got worse. There's nothing you can do about that."
Van der Poel didn't mention his illness as he spoke to anglophone TV media in the mixed zone, however he did when speaking to the Dutch and Belgian press, albeit without using it as an excuse.
"I haven't been so healthy after the E3, that certainly plays a part of course. I had a bit of a cold," said Van der Poel to Nos.nl.
"I certainly wasn't the only one, there were many riders who were ill. I'm certainly not going to use that as an excuse, it was clear that Tadej was the strongest."
"I was really sick for three days, I had to take antibiotics," he added, HLN reported.
"That illness has cost me a few percentage points. And I have to be 110 per cent here to follow Pogacar, that has been proven once again."
On a day where Pogačar is as dominant and aggressive as he was on Sunday, attacking each and every climb almost in the final 60, Van der Poel certainly didn't need illness to hinder him. And a crash at high speed with 126km to go would have reduced the Dutchman's capacity even more.
He came down alongside several teammates when riding at the back of the peloton. While he quickly jumped back on the bike before the Eikenberg, he'd lost vital positions and had to spend a bullet being brought back to the front where Pogačar was waiting to light things up.
"I think I was lucky to not have more damage after the crash. It was at high speed, so I'm quite happy to be on the podium actually," said the former world champion at the finish.
"For sure it was not ideal but I think the result would have been the same with or without the crash, like I said, I can be happy.
"Already before the last time Kwaremont, I was already a few times really on the limit, and I just didn't have the legs or what it took today to fight for the win. I knew I had to be 110% to follow, I'll try again next year."
There have been murmurs about a possible shoulder issue for Van der Poel, however, again he didn't want to use that and disrespect the strength of Pogačar who, as was the case at Flanders in 2023, was simply too strong over the climbs, eventually going solo and dropping Van der Poel once up the last Oude Kwaremont ascent.
Van der Poel gets the chance to bounce back from Flanders defeat next Sunday when he defends his Paris-Roubaix title and looks for a third win in a row at the Hell of the North.
However, it will again be Pogačar who enters as his main rival, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who beat him to second place in the sprint at Flanders, and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) also looking strong.
Van der Poel hopes to be back at his fittest and strongest.
"I hope to be completely ready by Sunday to give it another go in Roubaix," said a content van der Poel.
"It's a different race of course, where you need a bit of luck, so let's see what we can do."
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