“What! The! *******! What was all that? On Saturday I sat staring at Mathieu van der Poel with my mouth open,” Boonen wrote in his weekly analysis piece for Het Laatste Nieuws.

“We have known for some time that he is a phenomenon but his dominance in the final of the Strade Bianche surpassed everything.

“The attack on Le Tolfe was already impressive. After that he kept putting pressure on and on the final climb to the Piazza del Campo he simply blasted Alaphilippe out of the wheel. Nota bene: the most explosive rider in the world!”