Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) came around Axel Zingle (Cofidis) in the closing metres and won Circuit de Wallonie on Thursday. Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) took third place in Marcinelle.
For De Lie, it was his fourth consecutive podium of the year, coming off a win four days ago at Tro-Bro Léon. It was a fifth second-placed finish for Zingle, who recovered from a puncture with 30km to go and worked his way to the front of the race in the finale.
Once on the finish circuits, Lotto Dstny carried out the plan to deliver De Lie to the line. The final sprint was opened by Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech) but Zingle was quick to then hit the front. De Lie made a smooth pass on the right side of the flat finish to take the win by half a bike length.
"I don't know how many kilometers Victor [Campenaerts] spent in the front, but it was impressive," De Lie said after the win. "What fantastic teamwork again today. Being able to reward and thank all my teammates with a victory means a lot."
A number of attacks and breakaways took place across the 183.9km of racing. Samuele Privitera (Hagens Berman-Jayco) and Christian Lindquist (Airtox-Carl Ras), launched the first attack just 2km from the start in Charleroi. The breakaway doubled in size when Gianni Marchand (Tarteletto-Isorex) and Mirko Bozzola (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) caught the duo and they charged up the road with a one-minute margin 10km later, 170km still to ride.
Bozzola was the first of the group to drop back with under 75km to go. The time gap faded fast for the remaining trio as Lotto Dstny drilled the pace at the front of the peloton.
Tosh Van Der Sande (Visma-Lease a Bike) launched a brief attack with just under 50km to go and then his teammate Loe Van Belle followed with another effort 5km later. The race was back together with 35km to go, as riders began the first of three finishing circuits.
Van Belle attacked a second time near the end of the penultimate lap with 11km to go. A few kilometres later, Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) tagged on. Lotto Dstny then turned up their interest and swept the pair back into the fray for the bunch sprint.
Results
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