Blazin' Saddles: 10 talking points from a gloriously unpredictable Tour of Flanders

Having won the opening Monument of the season with Julian Alaphilippe – as well as practically every other major one-day classic – all eyes were on the imperious Deceuninck-QuickStep team on Sunday.

While things were not quite as bad for Patrick Lefevere's men as they were at Gent-Wevelgem, the Wolfpack were ultimately beaten by a better team on the day in EF Education First.

With Tim Declercq doing his thing on the front of the peloton during the first half of the race, it looked like business as usual for the boys in blue. But Philippe Gilbert's early problems on the Muur Geraardsbergen and E3 winner Zdenek Stybar's unexpected implosion on the first Kwaremont-Paterberg double set the scene for trouble ahead.

Yes, Kasper Asgreen had an outstanding race (more on which later) and, yes, Yves Lampaert and Bob Jungels put in decent shifts in their national colours. But it was the riders in the pink-and-fuchsia fade who stole the show once the going got tough.

Unsure how his injured knee may respond to the 17 helligen climbs, Sep Vanmarcke managed to get himself into a strong move to pave the way for his team-mates Alberto Bettiol and Sebastian Langeveld.

When Vanmarcke was dropped by leaders with 27km to go on Taaienberg, he did not disappear. Instead, he paced Bettiol hard into the third and final ascent of the Kwaremont.

The strategy was not far from risk: there were some huge names in the main group, plus QuickStep had Lampaert and Jungels poised and Asgreen up the road.

But it worked a dream.

After Vanmarcke finally cracked on the Kwaremont, Bettiol dropped the hammer with 19km remaining, his underdog status perhaps giving him the opportunity to ride past the leaders, Asgreen and Dylan Van Baarle of Team Sky, and over the top with a decent gap.

When the break approached the foot of the final climb, the Paterberg, it was Langeveld who came to the front and, after the tight right-hand bend ahead of the cobbles, put on the brakes and generally made a nuisance of himself – disrupting the chase and buying Bettiol some precious seconds.

The Italian took his cue. With no harmony in the chase, Asgreen was able to ride clear on the home straight – but it was only ever for second place. Deceuninck-QuickStep had been outclassed by EF Education First. Something many of us thought we'd never see.

In an emotional victory speech, the 25-year-old Italian (who hilariously calls himself Mamma di Pasta) paid tribute to his EF Education First team and inferred that it was about time that the peloton took more notice.

"We are a really good team and from now on you should look more on the front for the pink," Bettiol said, referring to his team's eye-catching kit.

But perhaps he had a point. After all, there were certain similarities between Bettiol's get-up and the kit of the last Italian to win the Ronde back in 2003…

And the one before that, come to think of it…

If Bettiol's post-race interview brought a tear to the eye then keep some of the tissues for Cecile Uttrup Ludwig's offering, which blew all other interviews out of the park.

In a rousing, rambling and riotous two minutes, the Dane, who finished third in the women's Ronde, managed to bring a collective smile onto the faces of every viewer with an interview in which she paid tribute to the Flanders fans while comparing herself to a "happy dead fish".

Even the rather serious-looking media minder loitering behind eventually smiled at Ludwig's joyous address, which has since gone viral – and quite rightly so.

Alberto Bettiol's victory came less than an hour after compatriot Marta Bastianelli powered past Annemiek van Vleuten and the happy dead fish Ludwig to win an exciting edition of the women's Ronde van Vlaanderen.

Now, who'd have predicted double delight for Italy on the Belgian cobbles on Sunday?

The Ronde's ability to surprise was very much evident on Sunday with a top three that surely no-one predicted.

Given Bettiol's track record at Flanders – two DNFs sandwiching a 24th place – it would have taken a brave person to place a punt on the Italian outsider. Throw in a runner-up spot for Deceuninck-QuickStep's Plan E – the 24-year-old Dane Kasper Asgreen – and a third place to veteran Alexander Kristoff, who has been a shade of the rider who won this race back in 2015 – and you get a podium which seems to have been drawn at random.

And you know what? The race was all the better for it.

While it was a bad day in the office for early-season classic pace-setters, Kasper Asgreen gave Deceuninck-QuickStep something to smile about.

The Danish youngster was, quite literally, ever-present in the race, putting in a titanic performance in line with that of compatriot Mads Pedersen, who last year finished runner-up, too, in his own maiden Ronde appearance.

Having marshalled the peloton alongside team-mate Tim Declercq for much of the first half of the race, Asgreen went on the offensive with 112km remaining ahead of the Muur. He then led the pursuit of Belgian leaders Sep Vanmarcke and Stijn Vandenbergh (Ag2R-La Mondiale) on the first ascent of the Paterberg.

Asgreen was part of the four-man leading group and then led alongside Dylan Van Baarle going into the final Kwaremont-Paterberg dual ascent. And when his team-mates – and the other illustrious chasers – failed to deliver on the run into Oudenaarde, it was Asgreen who still had enough to hop clear and snatch a deserved place on the podium.

Watching Alexander Kristoff out-sprint the rest of the chasing pack to take third place perhaps highlighted just why Bettiol was able to maintain his lead all the way to Oudenaarde.

After reminding the world of his class with a super-strong win in a windy Gent-Wevelgem the previous weekend, Kristoff put in another outstanding performance on Sunday.

The burly Norwegian kept out of trouble and kept his powder dry all day, but always kept within touching distance of the front of the race and played his cards perfectly for a reduced bunch sprint.

Bettiol being up the road clearly skuppered his chances, but Kristoff did nothing wrong. There was no way anyone was going to drag a fast finisher of his calibre to the line – which was perhaps why the chasing group lacked so much cohesion at the end.

While the likes of Peter Sagan, Michael Matthews and Alejandro Valverde were all there, none of them had anything left in the tank and Kristoff was clearly the danger-man. On a different day and under slightly different circumstances, Kristoff could have taken his second Flanders win on Sunday – and that's high praise for a rider whose future at UAE Team Emirates now looks very rosy following the initial treat posed by the arrival of Fernando Gaviria.

Never mind the what-ifs surrounding Kristoff, what if Dutch cross sensation Mathieu Van der Poel had not come a cropper with 60km remaining?

Prior to that, the 24-year-old had ridden a textbook maiden Ronde van Vlaanderen – being on the front of most of the moves and showing maturity beyond his years.

But the nervousness of the fast run towards the foot of the first Kwaremont-Paterberg combo saw Van der Poel panic while jostling for positions. Taking evasive action into what looked like a flower bed, he picked up a double puncture at speed and showed remarkable sang-froid to keep in control of his steed before, one arm raised to signal help, he was catapulted over the crossbars.

The sight of Van der Poel clutching his shoulder made it look as if his race was over. Far from it. The youngster fought back with true grit and, incredibly, was back with the main pack on the Koppenberg with 47km remaining.

True, his dicey moments were not over: he almost hit the deck again after some questionable cosying-up to the kerb ahead of the final Kwaremont-Paterberg combo.

But it was Van der Poel who led the chasers over the Paterberg behind Bettiol in pole position, before eventually settling for fourth place on his first appearance in the race.

As with Kristoff, on another day Van der Poel could well have stood atop the podium – 33 years after his father, Adrie, took the win.

Replying to Van der Poel's above tweet, the former Paris-Roubaix winner and Eurosport commentator Magnus Backstedt said: "Man, you should be proud of how you ride that race. It's yours in a year or so."

The Swede's "impressed" hashtag was an understatement. And the most refreshing thing? The fact that Van der Poel did not blame his crash – or even mention it. For without that fall, the Dutchman probably would have won in Bettiol's place – and that's taking nothing away from the Italian.

Eighth in his first Tour of Flanders just a few weeks shy of his 39th birthday? Perhaps the current world champion should have tried his hand at this cobbles malarkey a bit earlier in his career…

"For sure I'll be thinking about coming back here," he said after impressing in his debut. And so he should.

A crash at top speed in the peloton with 160km remaining ended the chances of reigning champion Niki Terpstra, who lost consciousness before being taken to hospital.

Channelling the Terminator, the Dutchman may have promised on Instagram that he'd "be back", but when it comes to his preferred cobbled terrain, it won't be until 2020 for his concussion has ruled the 34-year-old out of next Sunday's Paris-Roubaix.

It's a huge set-back not only for Terpstra but for his French pro-continental team Direct-Energie, who broke that bank to sign the former Ronde and Roubaix winner only to see him ruled out of both races after what appeared to be an innocuous touch of wheels.

And finally, let's return to the surprise winner of this race, the Italian who this season returned to Jonathan Vaughters' American team after an underwhelming year at BMC in 2018.

When Bettiol broke clear on the Kwaremont, it was left to his former team-mate Greg Van Avermaet to lead the chase – the same rider who apparently complained to BMC management about Bettiol's lacklustre performances when the latter was meant to be his domestique last season.

Making Van Avermaet eat his words was not the only subplot of the Italian's win on Sunday. When Bettiol crossed the line at Oudenaarde, he pointed to his eyes and gesticulated at the cameras in what was an apparently dig at the Italian media, who had long since discounted him as a rider capable of getting a big result.

So, a couple of small victories to go alongside his Monumental scalp on Sunday; Bettiol would have slept soundly on Sunday evening – if he even slept at all.