Some defeats feel like victories, and for both Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), watching Tadej Pogačar’s back wheel disappear into the middle distance on the closing metres of the Mur de Huy was hardly likely to be pleasurable.
But they could at least take consolation that of all the 2023 Flèche Wallonne peloton, their ringside seats for watching Pogačar’s latest display of crushing superiority were the closest.
Eleven years separate Landa, 33, from the up-and-coming Skjelmose, whose second place has all the feel of being another major step forward for the young Dane.
But despite the age gap, both agreed that when it comes to Pogačar and being beaten by the rider who has now taken twelve victories in one of the most spectacular Spring Classics campaigns in years, if not decades, there can be no sense of disgrace.
“Somebody’s got to be second or third, no?” Landa said post-race, putting his refreshing unwillingness to beat around the bush on display again. “The first of the mortals. This is what it is. He’s superior, a super good rider, and it’s difficult to beat him.”
“I didn’t have a plan, I only wanted to keep in a good position as we climbed,” Landa recognised. “The idea is just not to explode so you can handle even the last 100 metres.
“Today, UAE had a very strong team which wanted to keep things under control until Pogačar reached the Mur de Huy in the best situation possible. And that’s what they did.
“In any case, this is a result that makes me feel very confident because, in the previous week, I haven’t been feeling so great. It’s also a very good sign for Liège-Bastogne-Liège.”
Winless since the Vuelta a Burgos in 2021, Landa always tends to start his seasons well. But his latest podium finish comes at the end of his most consistent first third of the year in a long time.
Seventh in the season-opener Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, his first-ever podium finish in Flèche comes after a second place overall in the Itzulia Basque Country and fifth in Cataluña.
Landa was also second behind a certain Slovenian in the Vuelta a Andalucia in February, of course, and he recognised post-Flèche that “of course, we can say that it’s tough always to finish behind Pogačar or [Remco] Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).”
“But it’s always the same. When I turned pro, I always had Purito [Joaquim Rodriguez], Valverde and Contador to fight," he pointed out, referring to the stars of the Spanish 'golden generation' which had made much of the running in his younger days as a racer.
Landa’s ‘first of the mortals’ comment was echoed by Mike Woods a little later, who jokingly described himself on Instagram as ‘fourth on the day and third mortal.’ And the first ‘mere human’ to cross the line after Pogačar, Mattias Skjelmose recognised that it would have been impossible to do more.
"I told Danish television I would be more than grateful with a second place behind Tadej, and that’s what happened. I tried, and I was in a good position. I was not close, but closer than I thought I would be,” he said.
“We tried to follow, and we hoped that somebody was going to attack earlier, and people tried, but UAE did a f**king – sorry, a really – good job today, so chapeau to those guys.”
Skjelmose’s notable progress this season, and in the Ardennes in particular, has seen him take a top-ten finish in Amstel and follow that up with his first podium finish in Flèche. It’s also Denmark’s first in the mid-week Classic since Jakob Fuglsang clinched second in 2019, prior to winning outright in Liège on Sunday.
Given the superiority of Pogačar right now, it would seem a shade unwise to predict a similar line of progress for the young Trek-Segafredo pro. But as he concluded, two top-five places for his team with himself and Giulio Ciccone was nothing to be ashamed of, either - while he also had some insightful comments to make about the strategy used by the man who beat him.
“I was not surprised Tadej waited for the Mur,” he reasoned, “that was the smartest thing.
“When you’re as good as he is, maybe he wanted to win in a more exciting way: however, he kept it calm and waited for the sprint on the Mur.
“That’s also the sign of a great champion, to keep it calm when you know you have good legs. We always go for the win, but with my second place and Ciccone’s 5th, we did an amazing job."
Is all lost for the mere mortals for La Doyenne on Sunday? Pogačar himself said that his team was too tired after controlling the race for 200 kilometres to make the race as hard as he would have wanted, and with such an overwhelming favourite, it could be that even UAE finds having the responsibility for handling a much tougher course is an uphill challenge.
Landa himself argued that Pogačar’s superiority and the much-anticipated duel with Evenepoel could provide opportunities to ambush the two if they focus excessively on tracking each other.
"I’m expecting a hard race,” he concluded. “But Remco is coming, so maybe it will be a big fight between them, and we can use that to surprise them."
In this year's Flèche Wallonne, though, when it came to the final result, there were no surprises on offer whatsoever - and after his latest performance, on Sunday in Liège, Pogačar will likely be the key reference point for a hefty percentage of two-wheeled humanity again.
