Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin-Desseuninck) ended his spring campaign successfully with victories in the E3 Classic, Tour de Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix, but against riders like Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates), Liège- Bastogne - Liège, he said that third place was the best he could do.

"I am realistic enough. If Pogachar is in good shape, I can't keep up with him with my legs.

"I know he has bad days. He was impressive today and I think my classic season has been more than successful. I'm really happy to be on the podium here."

Van der Poll comes into the Spring Classic after winning his sixth cyclocross world title in Tabor in February.

When asked if the six-plus week peak affected his performance in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Van der Pol said, "I understand that the combination of the cobbled Classics and the Ardennes Classics is difficult, but with Pogachar on such a difficult route He said he wanted to be realistic about performance.

"It is possible. I may have underestimated the decompression after Ronde and Roubaix. The main thing is that I have already trained and peaked from cyclocross, which is a long time to go to Liège," Van der Pol said.

"Like I said before, it's hard to keep up with Taddej even at his best. Everyone has their own race and I did what I had to do in mine."

Pogachar attacked La Redoute and then rode solo 34 km to the finish line to take his sixth Monument win, 1:39 ahead of second place Romain Bardet (Team dsm-Firmenich PostNL).

Van der Pol finished third, 2:02 behind. To his own surprise, he was involved in a small crash involving part of the peloton on a steep climb with about 100 km to go.

He said the effort he put into the chase was difficult and that he did not expect to return to the front of the race.

"I didn't expect to be on the podium until about 5km to go, so I'm happy today because I think everyone knows that this is the highest [result] possible for me," van der Pol said, explaining how he ended up behind the crash.

"It was a big, big effort. I had just gone back to get my leg warmers and gloves. And then the crash happened. And the road was blocked. I thought I would never see the front again, and I was happy to get back after a long chase, but I could already feel my legs were a little tired."

"But even with the legs of Ronde and Roubaix, I don't think I could have kept up with Pogachar.

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