Taddei Pogachar threw his arms in the air as he crossed the finish line of the Tour de Flanders, clearly unhappy after settling for fourth place in the four-man sprint.

The Tour de France champion blew a great chance to win his third monumental title on his debut in the Ronde.

About 45 minutes later, after taking a shower and digesting his disappointment, Pogachar put on a brave face. Not only that, but there was hardly a hint of regret, let alone anger, on Pogachar's face as he smiled and answered questions on the steps of the team bus.

"I love this race," Pogachar told the assembled reporters, including Cycling News.

"All in all, it was a great experience. It was a really great race. The team was super and perfect. I had a lot of fun with Mathieu [Van der Pol] alone in the finale and the atmosphere on the climbs was great."

Pogachar dominated the race, accelerating repeatedly on the important climbs. First, he dominated the race on the Koppenberg, then caught up with Van der Pol on the final climb of the Oude Kwaremont. On the Paterberg, the 2020 champion could not be dropped, and the two raced together to the finish in Oudenaarde.

However, a sprint for glory by the two allowed Dylan Van Baarle and Valentin Maduas to join them from behind, resulting in a four-man battle. Van der Pol began his sprint, but Pogachar quickly dropped back, finishing fourth behind Van Baarle and Maduas.

"At that moment I was really disappointed that I couldn't do my sprint. But that's cycling. But that's cycling," explained Pogachar.

"I wasn't mad at anyone for that. It may have looked that way, but I was frustrated with myself because I didn't run my best 100 meters to the finish."

Half an hour later, Cycling News learned that UAE director Fabio Baldato had visited the race jury to review footage of the sprint and investigate a possible rules violation. He said he had "reached the limit," but the matter did not go any further.

Pogachar may not have reached Van der Pol anyway, but his complete absence from the podium seemed a kind of injustice, given that he had shaped the race.

The Slovenian, whose UAE Team Emirates teammate had stood out all day, took the lead for the first time on the Canaryberg with 70km to go, and then accelerated on the first Oude Kwaremont climb to quickly break away from the pack that had formed a few kilometers earlier.

After crossing the Paterberg in the first few sections, he accelerated again on the Koppenberg: only Van der Poer and Maduas followed. Then he accelerated again on the Tiaenberg and caught up with the leading duo of van Baar and Fred Wright (Bahrain-Victorias).

On the final climb up Kwaremont, they accelerated early and dropped out of the pack one by one.

"I could see that there was a tailwind on Oude Kwaremont, so I said on the second or last one that I needed to do my best," Pogachar said. "It's a difficult climb, one of the longest. It gives you goosebumps."

Pogachar again took the lead on the final climb, the Paterberg, and for a moment it looked as if he might shake off Van der Pol, but he was forced to ride with the Dutchman until the finish.

"[Van der Pol] came up next to me and tried to accelerate, but I didn't have enough legs to drop him. He was on fire today. We were almost the same on the climbs. I tried to beat him in the sprint, but it wasn't my day."

Perhaps most surprisingly, Pogachar revealed that he lost his cycle computer in a crash early in the race, so he rode entirely by feel.

"I lost my SRM head unit, so I had to rely on my radio and my sport director, Fabio Baldato. In the end, I was less nervous racing without a number.

"It wouldn't have made any difference. You can't rely on the numbers here. The directors were talking on the radio and he controlled the sectors and corners well. That was not a problem."

Pogachar was competing in his second cobbled classic as a professional after Wednesday's Dwars door Hlaanderen. Aside from his two Tour de France titles, he has already won the Monument in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Ile Lombardia.

As he prepared to return to the bus, a Belgian TV reporter wanted to know if Pogachar would return in the future.

"Yes," came the simple but definitive answer.