{"id":568563,"date":"2026-03-29T12:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T12:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568563\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T12:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T12:06:12","slug":"nick-zukowsky-rolls-the-dice-in-e3-saxo-classic-breakaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/568563\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Zukowsky rolls the dice in E3 Saxo Classic breakaway"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Mathieu van der Poel was off doing his usual solo destruction en route to a third straight win at the E3 Saxo Classic<\/a>, Nick Zukowsky was living a very different version of the same race, one that probably hurt just as much.<\/p>\n

A long day out front<\/p>\n

The Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team rider came in with a clear brief: get in the break. Simple enough on paper. Less so in reality. Either way, the Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Que pro has been having a great year and is in great form. He\u2019s been in all kinds of long moves so far in 2026, and also took a career best GC result at Paris-Nice. The former national champ finished a very impressive 14th at a tough edition of the Race to the Sun.<\/p>\n

Nickolas Zukowsky shines in Paris\u2013Nice with career-best WorldTour GC finish<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was for me to get in the break, but I was kind of the only one going for it, more or less,\u201d Zukowsky said. \u201cSo I had to be smart about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Break sticks<\/p>\n

It took time, he said, around 25 to 30 kilometres of patience, before things finally snapped. When they did, Zukowsky helped light the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of initiated the breakaway, really,\u201d he said to Canadian Cycling Magazine. \u201cThere were three of us for a while\u2026 we only had like 20, 30 seconds. So we were riding pretty hard for a good while.\u201d<\/p>\n

More riders bridged, the gap stretched, and for a moment, the move looked like it might stick. Well, maybe. Behind them, a stacked bunch kept the pressure on, turning the early move into a long, grinding effort rather than a free ride up the road. It was when eventual winner Mathieu van der Poe (Alpecin-Premier Tech) launched that things looked a little more sketch. He would join the break, and then things went south for the escape.<\/p>\n

Van der Poel goes nuclear<\/p>\n

By the time the race hit the final climbs, where Van der Poel blew things apart, the early effort started to bite.<\/p>\n

Guillaume Boivin, Photo: James BungaMathieu van der Poel, Photo: James BungaNick Zukowsky, Photo: James Bunga<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that\u2019s what I paid for a bit at the end,\u201d Zukowsky said. \u201cI felt pretty good all day\u2026 but then when they caught us, I was already kind of on the limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

What followed was a familiar Classics spiral: from hanging on to hanging off. Still, he was pleased with his ride, plus, many of his Belgian teammates gave him some intel about the race, so Zuke was stoked that he executed the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next two climbs, I just completely capitulated,\u201d he said. \u201cFeeling pretty good to pretty empty, pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the race fractured in the final 30 km, Zukowsky slid backwards through the groups. His legs were cooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a big old hard day in the saddle,\u201d he said. \u201cThe idea was to be in the break, I made it there, kind of gambled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Poel himself also gambled\u2013and nearly lost. His legs were tenderized in the final 10km and suddenly, a chasing group was a few hundred metres from catching him and spoiling his third win. Just as it seemed like he was going to sit up, they looked at each other. And then, van der Poel was gone. He said afterwards he too was smoked and the win was defo a painful one.<\/p>\n

For Zukowksy, with Gent-Wevelgem<\/a> and the Tour of Flanders on deck, he is already looking ahead\u2026 and knowing exactly what level it\u2019s going to take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Mathieu van der Poel was off doing his usual solo destruction en route to a third straight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,206559,13633,63918,82,11588],"class_list":["post-568563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-e3-saxo-classic","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-nick-zukowsky","tag-sports","tag-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}