Van der Poel vs. Laporte Prediction on September 11-15, 2024

Match info

From Wednesday, September 11 to Sunday, September 15, in Limburg, Flanders, Belgium, six cycling 2024 UEC Road European Championship races and the same number of time trials in the junior, under-23, and elite categories will take place. A total of 959 riders from 37 countries are expected to compete. Here, we’ll concentrate on the winner of the men’s elite event, to be ridden 220km, which is scheduled to begin on Sunday at 12:45 p.m. local time at the recently constructed Sport Vlaanderen Heusden Zolder Velodroom Limburg.

Meeting statistics

Riders with varying profiles are to compete for the top spots on the difficult and selective routes designed for this year’s European Road Cycling Championships. The Belgian cities of Heusden-Zolder and Hasselt will serve as the start and finish lines. To find the finest in the junior, under-23, and elite categories, there will be 14 events, all of which will have both men’s and women’s divisions. Two mixed relay competitions will also be held. The junior time trial has been added to the European schedule for 2023 and will be held again in 2024, in addition to the elite divisions.

In the elite division, the Belgian national team is the biggest collective favorite. This is in spite of Wout van Aert’s last-minute withdrawal. Due to a heavy crash, the versatile Visma–Lease a Bike rider was unable to compete in his native nation at the European Championships this year. Van Aert has withdrawn from the Zolder race and won’t be competing this year. His right knee ailment is severe enough to keep him from racing, even though it isn’t a fracture. The Belgian team will be focusing its efforts mostly on Jasper Philipsen in Van Aert’s absence because of his sprinting speed, which could provide him plenty of opportunities provided he can handle the course’s challenges.

Former European champions like the current leader, France’s Christophe Laporte, are among the men’s field’s top favorites. But it’s a wide-open race. The Dutch squad will be led by reigning world champion and perennial favorite Mathieu van der Poel, with sprinters like Arnaud Démare (France), who won silver in 2020 and 2022, also competing for high placement. In pursuit of the podium will be Portuguese riders Iúri Leitão and Rui Oliveira, who won gold in the Madison at the Paris Olympics, as well as former world champion Mads Pedersen (Denmark). Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel have opted out because they’ll be competing at the World Championships in Zurich in a few weeks.

The two Swiss specialists, who have already won three European titles combined, will be the center of attention throughout the time trial: Stefan Küng (2020 and 2021), who won the Vuelta a España final stage, and Stefan Bissegger (2022). They’ll share the focus with Belgium’s Yves Lampaert and Victor Campenaerts.

Match analytics

Though some countries bring stacked fields of riders to give them many cards to play, the Limburg track isn’t created for a single kind of rider. Christophe Laporte is the clear favorite among the stars going to the Flanders Region, despite the fact that several riders will also try to step on the No. 1 place on the podium. The Frenchman is eager to defend the title jersey he won in the European Championship in 2023. So far, only odds for time trial were released by the best sports betting sites in Europe, but when this particular race ends on Wednesday, make sure to check online operators for the odds for the main race.