Julien Alaphilippe's extra two hours of training immediately after the Doire de Flenderen caused a stir, but Alexander Kristoff went on a monster seven-hour ride the next morning with race fatigue still in his legs.

Most of the riders would have been recovering from a particularly aggressive mid-week semi-classic race, and most of the Tour de Flanders contenders would have been no more than four hours into the three days leading up to Holy Sunday. [But Alexander Kristoff was different. Around 10 a.m. on Thursday, he left Uno X's classic base near Oudenaarde and returned more than seven hours later.

During this time, he covered 202.4 km, gained 1553 m of elevation in 20 short climbs in the Flanders-Ardennes region, and consumed 5,000 kilojoules.

"When you wake up after a hard race, it's never easy to get out and make time, but these things suit me," Christophe told Cycling News.

Christophe won the Tour de Flanders in 2015, thanks to his victory in the three-day De Panne. Today, the Des Pannes has been pushed to the Doire de Vlaanderen in the Flanders Classics, a one-day race held a week before Flanders as a prelude to the Tour of Flanders.

Christophe competed in the Douard on Wednesday and came close to winning, running almost the entire way from a breakaway group, but still did not have enough legs.

"I used to like the way it was set up in De Panne, but there is only one day of racing this week. So I put the same kind of load on it that I did at De Panneh. So I did a long ride with Dwars.

"It didn't help that the weather wasn't great. I felt good when I was riding easy, but when I tried to push, it wasn't so good."

Christophe should know how to find his form in Flanders. His results in Flanders are the most consistent and oldest of the current peloton: 12, 4, 5, 1, 4, 5, 16, 3, 3, 18, 10.

"I don't know what Flanders is for me. In the last few years I have found a new racing groove and have achieved reasonable results," said Christophe.

"It's a long race and it suits me. When the race is long, you lose explosiveness on the climbs. Everyone is tired and the pace is a bit slower on the climbs than in other shorter races.

That's where a 7-hour fatigue ride helps.

"For this type of race, it's good to stock up on some long rides.

"However, many athletes have good results without doing these rides.

Now 35 years old, Christophe is riding his debut season for the up-and-coming Norwegian team Uno-X, but realistically he has no shot at a second Tour de Flanders appearance.

"I want to fight for good results. I want to fight for a good result, because there are strong riders like Van der Pol, Van Aert, and Pogacar behind me. I would be very happy to be in the top ten, but it's not going to be easy.

"I have a great record here and I hope I still have it after Sunday.