Up until mid-week, Jumbo Visma had the Tour de Flanders winner, Wout Van Aert. However, when the Classics captain contracted COVID-19 and was forced to miss his home race, the team finished empty-handed despite an aggressive strategy. Christophe Laporte's ninth place was the best he could do. Jumbo-Visma broke away from the early breakaway, but as the peloton approached the first block of the final Heringen and the breakaway began to reel in, Nathan van Hooydonk attacked in Molenberg, taking 12 riders, including teammate Mick van Dijk He pulled away and launched a powerful counter attack. But the Tour de Flanders has never been kind. As the pace picked up before the cobbled climb in the second block, Laporte was knocked down in a crash and then climbed out of a culvert on the side of the road. When Mathieu Van Der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) made their move, neither he nor Tige Benoot could follow. While Van der Pol took his second Tour of Flanders win, Pogacar was passed by Dylan Van Baar (Ineos) and Valentin Maduas (Groupama-FDJ), who caught them with 250m to go.

Van Baar, a classics specialist, missed another chance for Jumbo Visma. Director Artur van Dongen told Het Nieuwsblad that he felt Van Aert would have been there if Laporte had been by his side.

"Given the course, especially with a strong team around him, I think it was the course for Wout," van Dongen said.

"If Laporte hadn't crashed, he would have been with the guys who were in the finals. If Laporte hadn't crashed, he would have been with the riders who made the final so exciting.

Paris-Roubaix is fortunately only two weeks away after the dates were swapped with the Amstel Gold Race due to the French elections, but Van Dongen is not speculating on whether he will make it to hell in the north.

"At the moment it is too early to say when he can return. Unless he is fit, I can't say anything about that. First we need to get him back in shape, do a medical checkup, and then see if it makes sense to schedule a race."

Jumbo Visma made the most of the Tour de Flanders, wisely breaking away from the breakaway group in the early stages to help control the gap. As the peloton approached the first block of the final herringen and the breakaway began to reel in, Nathan van Hooydonk attacked in Molenberg, pulling out 12 riders, including teammate Mick van Dijk, in a powerful counter attack.

But as the pace picked up before the cobbled climb in the second block, Laporte climbed out of a culvert on the side of the road after being caught in a group crash.

"I felt good today," Laporte said in a team press release. "It was unfortunate that I crashed. I had to work pretty hard to catch up. Crashing is always bad timing, especially this time. The team worked hard to get me back in a good position."

Finishing 48 seconds behind the rest of the five-man chase group, Laporte finished in ninth place.

"I'm feeling good and it bodes well for the races to come. I'm happy with ninth; I'm happy with ninth place."

Benoot, who finished 13th at 1:02, agreed that Laporte's crash cost the team an important effort. He said, "I wanted to attack in Molenberg. I think it worked out well. Mick and Nathan got away and we had two guys in front of us. It was unfortunate that Kristoff crashed. It took a lot of energy from the team to get him back to a reasonable position. I felt good, but I couldn't keep up with the other riders when they accelerated.

The star of the day for the team was neo-pro Van Dijk, who started the first major classic of his career, the Tour de Flanders, wearing Van Art's number 11. He finished 75th in a last-minute call-up.

"I surprised myself today," van Dijk said. "For me the Tour of Flanders is the most beautiful classic. It was great to attack. It became clear that in a race of this length I am still a little bit short, but I think I made progress. But I think I made progress and I am very proud of that. As a team, we are not giving up. We have proven that we are strong in these races and that we have something to look forward to in these big classic races in the last few weeks."

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