Alexander Kristoff’s Tour of Flanders triumph was the third in succession by a foreign rider, marking the longest drought for the home nation since Fiorenzo Magni completed his hat-trick of Ronde victories in 1951, leading to much wringing of hands in the Flemish newspapers when they appeared on Tuesday morning following the Easter break.
This being Flanders, even in his absence, Tom Boonen can’t help but make headlines. Het Nieuwsblad’s Ronde wrap led with a picture of Kristoff and the caption: “The new Boonen is Norwegian.”
Het Laatste Nieuws, meanwhile, bemoaned a Tour of Flanders “without lustre” but applauded Kristoff as “perhaps the main classics rider of the new generation,” though there was concern that the Belgian famine is set to stretch to four years: “If Boonen doesn’t return quickly, we’ll have a new, sad record next year.”
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Normally, Etixx-QuickStep’s failure to win the Tour of Flanders would be cause for a detailed inquest, but instead it was Sep Vanmarcke’s disappointing showing that garnered the most column inches. Widely tipped as the most likely local winner, Vanmarcke was surprisingly dropped on the Taaienberg and despite a forlorn chase, never got back into the race.
“Champagne on ice, but Vanmarcke doesn’t even make the top 50,” trumpeted Het Nieuwsblad, noting pointedly that “it seems as if the strong Vanmarcke of the Omloop has disappeared.” Het Laatste Nieuws, meanwhile, asked: “What results did Vanmarcke actually have to earn his status [as a favourite]?”
Vanmarcke’s coach Luc Wante offered a mea culpa of sorts to the newspaper. “We made a mistake. We tried to make him race less aggressively and that didn’t suit him,” said Wante, who also noted: “It’s the press that claims he is Boonen’s successor.”
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