Ute Van Aert and Christophe Laporte have made a habit of such marches, and the Jumbo-Visma pair had deja vu in Ghent-Wevelgem when they recreated the long-distance two-up they won at the E3 Hallerbeek a year ago.

At the time, the leader's pecking order dictated that Van Aert would finish first. This time, the Belgian handed the victory to his teammate. The chilling effect he had on the rest of the peloton when he escaped on the second climb of the Kemmelberg with about 55 km to go was exactly the same here.

The cobbled gradient on the Kemmelberg reached 16%, but Van Aert and Laporte showed little signs of duress and just kept pushing to clear. By contrast, the riders behind them looked as if they were trying to climb a downhill escalator. At the top, the two Jumbo-Visma racers already had 10 seconds in their hands, and the gap continued to widen.

Van Aert did the bulk of the pace-making, extending his lead to over a minute by the time he made his final move on the Kemelberg at the 35km mark. Even without the rain and low clouds that blanketed the plateau along the French-Belgian border on Sunday afternoon, the riders chasing Van Aert and Laporte would have struggled in the final hour. When they crossed the line at Wevelghem, their lead was almost two minutes.

"What an incredible way to end a great classic like Ghent-Wevelgem. I can't believe we're running together all the way to the finish line."

Of course, there have been impressive group bends in previous Classics, but somehow Jumbo Visma seems to have created such exhibitions as a routine. Last year's E3 also saw Van Aert and Laporte in a similar battle for third place with Primoš Roglic in the Paris-Nice race.

Laporte's victory was the team's fourth classic win of the season after Dylan van Baarle and Thijs Benoot split the opening weekend, and Van Aert dominated Mathieu van der Pol and Tadej Pogachar on Friday in Harelbeke

"The team is now in a position to win the Classic again.

"This is an incredible Classic season for us as a team. Our run this season has been truly amazing. Of course, Friday's win was a really special weekend and a really important victory. Today was an exceptional team performance."

Van Aert was clearly the stronger of the Jumbo-Visma duo. This was clearly demonstrated when he pulled away from Laporte in the final time on Kemmelberg and waited for the Frenchman at the summit. They congratulated each other in the last kilometer, but it soon became clear that Van Aert had handed the victory to his teammate.

"People at home only see this race, but Christophe is a good friend. It feels strange to sprint against each other in a situation like this," Van Aert explained.

"For me it is very important to understand that it is impossible to do everything alone. And a day like today, maybe it gives me more pleasure than just winning myself."

After his victory in Harelbeke on Friday, van Aal showed his weakness in Cvalemont when he was temporarily eliminated by the breakaway Pogacar and van der Pol. Van Aert softly dismissed the notion that Jumbo Visma's power here ahead of the Tour de Flanders was to send a message to his absent rivals.

"It was the best tactic we could have used today to win the race as a team. With Christophe and Nathan [van Hooydonk], we decided to be aggressive."

"Nothing has changed since Friday, but we are already in good shape going into the Tour of Flanders. I had a check-up, but the two guys who hurt me on Friday were not here today.

Maybe so, but Van Aat also knows that the strength of his jumbo-vismagarde is a problem that also plagues Rondet's rivals.