Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) rode the wave of confidence from his Milan-San Remo victory to another sprint victory at the Classic Brugge-De Panne.
Philipsen emerged from the wheels as Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) charged ahead with the finish line in sight, but the Belgian rider's speed was simply too much and he had to settle for third after having to chase back from a near mishap with 10km to go.
As he made his way to the front along the barriers, Philipsen clashed with Tim Merlier (Soudal-Quickstep) and both riders had to stop pedalling but both, fortunately, stayed upright.
Philipsen got back up to speed first and was able to dash to the right to get around Van Poppel, out-sprint Merlier, and celebrate his third win of the season.
Speaking after the finish, Philipsen described his win. "I had a lot of positions to make up in the last corner and I got on Tim Merlier's wheel," he said. "I tried to go past on the left and the gap was really small.
"I went shoulder to shoulder with Tim - a bit of a shame - but in the end it was a good sprint and I'm happy to win."
Speaking about the clash, Philipsen said, "It was difficult to guess what Van Poppel was going to do and I chose which side to go on, and just in time we were able to avoid a crash.
"I hope to have another nice victory in the coming weeks - that will be a nice one for sure because there are only important races to come. But yeah, we'll see. I think Classic season is already a big success for us - everything extra is cherry on the cake," he added.
How it unfolded
After his stunning victory in Milan-San Remo, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) toed the line for the Classic Brugge-De Panne. Without any wind to create echelons, it was a prime opportunity for sprinters like the Belgian.
The day's breakaway went clear from the drop of the flag and was met with little resistance. Luca De Meester (Bingoal WB), Victor Vercouille (Flanders-Baloise) and Thomas Gachignard (TotalEnergies) were the lucky trio to get maximum television time.
They gained over four minutes before the peloton got to work chasing them in earnest. Most of the pace-setting in the peloton came from Bora-Hansgrohe for Sam Welsford, Soudal-Quickstep for Tim Merlier, Jayco-AlUla for Dylan Groenewegen and Alpecin-Deceuninck, backing the pre-race favourite Philipsen.
The gap began to fall as the kilometres clicked down and came under the minute mark with 31km to go.
With 24km to go, the gap was down to 36 seconds when Gachinard attacked and left his two companions behind. They were caught by the peloton with 21km remaining.
As Jayco-AlUla hit the front, Gachignard was in sight, but the peloton let him dangle and his gap went out over 30 seconds.
That advantage was halved over the next 10km and, as the peloton reached 10km to go, his time out front came to an end.
After a brief off-road excursion, Danny van Poppel had to make his way back through the peloton to join his teammates at the front.
Soudal-Quickstep led into the final 500 metres before Lidl-Trek opened up the sprint. Welsford rocketed off but Philipsen was able to come off the wheel to snatch another win.
Results
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