In this week’s episode of The Cycling Podcast, Daniel Friebe is joined by former Classics stalwart Mitch Docker and the journalist Richard Abraham, as we look back at last weekend’s pre-Ronde van Vlaanderen appetisers, the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem. Friday saw the latest masterclass from Mathieu van der Poel in E3, which  underlined his status as the outstanding favourite for De Ronde. Forty-eight hours later, though, Mads Pedersen’s victory over Van der Poel in Gent-Wevelgem led some to wonder whether Lidl-Trek had happened upon the perfect blueprint for defeating the Dutchman - not that the strategy will be easy to implement on Sunday.  In the final part of the podcast, we hear from a rider for whom just being on the startline on Sunday will represent a personal triumph - the Dane Michael Valgren, whose career was almost ended by a horror crash in the 2022 Route Occitanie.  Babbel Learn a language the fun, easy way with intuitive 15-minute lessons you can do when you want. Choose from 14 languages including Spanish, French, Italian and German. Get six months free with the purchase of a six-month subscription at Babbel.com/play with the promo code CYCLE24. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast The 11.01 Cappuccino Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it’s after 11am). MAAP The Cycling Podcast x MAAP collection is available now. Go to maap.cc to see the full MAAP range. Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to more than 100 exclusive episodes. Our latest, four-part KM0 special, ‘Classicissima: Springtime in Sanremo’ is available on the Kilometre 0 for Friends of The Cycling Podcast feed now.  The Cycling Podcast is on Strava The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.