The plan was to get behind Mathieu van der Pol and outnumber him, but in the Ghent-Wevelgem finale, Mats Pedersen faced something akin to a modern-day Hercules exertion: a direct confrontation with the world champion.

Pedersen's Lidl-Trek team had been aggressive and united throughout the afternoon, sending three men into the seven-man lead group that formed after the first climb of the Kemelberg, but in a race like this, a plan can only take a team so far. In the final hour or so, Pedersen had to find his own way to overcome obstacles that seemed insurmountable.

If Pedersen was daunted by the task, he did not show it. On the final climb to the Kemmelberg, he set the tempo himself, increasing the pace to pull away from his last remaining breakaway partner, Laurens Pitti (Groupama-FDJ). Above all, Pedersen wanted to ride well enough to prevent Van der Pol from accelerating himself.

"I didn't want to drop Mathieu," Pedersen said. First of all, I didn't think I could do that, and secondly, if I could have dropped him, I bet he would have sat there waiting for the peloton. Then the whole team would have been chasing him, and it wouldn't have made any sense at all.

"At the last Kemmel, I didn't look back. I just wanted to make it tough on him so he wouldn't attack. I remember his attack at the Tour of Flanders last year and that definitely pushed me to the limit, so I wanted to avoid that. I didn't know if he was completely on the edge or not. I didn't know if he had reached his limit.

Van der Pol later revealed that he was struggling to handle Pedersen at this point, and the Dutchman confessed that he already had a sinking feeling after the two-man sprint 35 km later. Pedersen, of course, had no way of knowing this, and the two hit it off on the other side of the Kemmel. Having eliminated the dangerous Piti, the two were content to share the work on the flat road to Wevelgem.

"It was like we asked each other if we were happy with the situation, if we were going to work together or start attacking each other," Pedersen explained of the brief parley captured by the TV cameras.

"It would have been a little too soon to attack each other. We had already agreed to push Petey to the limit where he would blow up, and we wanted to make up some time before the peloton sorted themselves out. We wanted to run together in the crosswind to give us enough time before we hit the tailwind section. It worked out well."

That was an understatement, but Pedersen still had a lot of work to do in the final kilometer. As the peloton, which included Alpecin Deceuninck's teammate Jasper Philipsen, closed in fast, Van der Pol attached himself to Pedersen's rear wheel under Flamme Rouge.

Pedersen was unaware that his pursuers were right on his heels, but he kept a high pace, aware of Van der Poel's prodigious ability to accelerate from slow speeds, a trick that helped him outrun Tadej Pogachar in the 2022 Tour de Flanders.

"I didn't want to surprise him by doing my long sprint," Pedersen explained. "Him sprinting was the last thing I wanted to do today. I'm good at long sprints. I just had to trust that today and hope it would be enough."

While most saw this cobbled classic campaign as a battle between Van der Pol and Wout Van Aert (who did not line up in Ghent-Wevelgem), the overall strength of the Lidl-Trek team was one of the most impressive aspects of this spring. They continued in the same vein here.

Crosswinds blew in at De Mohren with 150km to go, and Pedersen joined a seven-man lead group with teammates Jasper Stuyven and Jonathan Milano.

The obvious tactic at this point was to attack Van der Pol in turn. However, when Jasper Steiven unfortunately suffered a puncture on Plug Street, Ridltrek was forced to change his strategy on the spot.

"It kind of sucked," Pedersen laughed ruefully.

"Johnny was putting me under good pressure and I was ready to keep attacking.

Regardless, Pedersen's eventual victory was his second in Ghent-Wevelgem since winning in 2020. Pedersen, a former world champion, has made no secret of his desire for the Monument, and his disappointment was evident after finishing fourth in Milan-San Remo last weekend.

A win here would be a sufficient price to pay, and Pedersen has been named the favorite to win the Tour de Flanders. He finished second in his debut ronde in 2018 and third a year ago behind the impregnable Pogachar and Van der Pol.

"Yeah, but I'm still pretty far from winning. Winning always gives me confidence, but Flanders is a different race and really tough for me. Paris-Roubaix suits me better," said Pedersen, who insisted that the team's cooperative leadership would be maintained over the next two weekends.

"We are running as a team and there is no specific leader. With a strong group like ours, it doesn't make sense to have a meeting the day before and say, 'I'm running for this person. A lot can happen in the Classics, especially in Flanders. If a team tells me to put pressure on me to run for the others, I will. They pay my salary. I will do whatever they tell me to do."

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