Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) beat compatriot Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) to win De Brabantse Pijl in his first race after a winter spent recovering from injury. António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates) led the peloton to the line for third place 27 seconds behind the duo.
Evenepoel and Van Aert attacked on the Hertstraat, the first of three climbs on the 19.8km circuits with 55km to go, and used the Moskesstraat and Holstheide to build on their lead. They had Joe Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech) along for company until the final lap, when they left the promising young Briton behind.
Van Aert appeared to be in a prime position to out-sprint Evenepoel, but the Soudal-QuickStep rider sprinted from the front and held off his rival to get a huge morale boost after a difficult period of rehabilitation.
"It's incredible," Evenepoel said. "I knew in the last days that I was pretty good, but to race from so far away together with Wout, who is in, let's say, growing shape - and being back here on a course that is not 100% mine - it feels pretty good. Then to beat Wout in the sprint, taking the lead in the last two kilometers...
"I thought I was beaten already before we started the sprint, but you always have to sprint. It's been a hard race, and I know my sprint stays the same whether it's an easy race or a hard race, and over the years, I became a bit more explosive. So that's why I trusted my sprint.
"I have to thank my dad for the last two hard trainings behind the scooter. He really pushed me to the limit sometimes and it paid off - it's so incredible to open the season with a win."
Van Aert was in search of his first victory of the season, but fell short one position for a third time this spring.
"Of course, I hoped to win, especially in this situation, going to the line in a sprint. But I held nothing back. Remco slightly killed me in this final hour of the race. It was already hard to hang on in the last lap, so he really deserves to win," Van Aert said.
"I'm not too disappointed, because he was just so much stronger. I hoped to beat him, but a sprint after a race like this is not the same and apparently I didn't have a good sprint anymore."
How it unfolded
The 2025 Brabantse Pijl kicked off under clear skies from Beersel and as soon as the official start was given, Tuur Dens (Flanders Baloise) launched an attack and was joined by five riders: Jens Reynders (Wagner Bazin WB), Joren Bloem (RKT), Ådne Holter (Uno-X Mobility), Iúri Leitāo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Antonio Jesús Soto (Kern Pharma) in the day's move.
The leaders could not gain more than two minutes, and after 100 kilometres of racing, they entered the finishing circuits with just under a minute's lead as attacks came from the peloton.
Alpecin-Deceuninck led a 10-man counter-attack but they were caught before the first ascent of the S-Bocht in Overijse. The surge brought the six-man escape group's lead down to 41 seconds with three laps to go.
EF Education-EasyPost came to the front in force along with Visma-Lease a Bike and Q36.5 Pro Cycling, ramping up the pace before the Hertstraat climb but it was the killer bees who surged to the front to launch Van Aert on the cobbled ascent, followed quickly by Evenepoel in his first major effort of the season.
Their surge caused a split in the peloton with only 20 riders able to match the pace and brought Dens, who had been dropped, back into the fold while Leitão drove the pace to try to keep the breakaway alive.
Evenepoel and Van Aert hit the front at the base of the Moskesstraat climb and breezed past the rest of the breakaway before forming their own along with Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates) and Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
The race rapidly hit the Holsteide climb where Evenepoel kept a vicious pace and only Van Aert could hold on. Joe Blackmore (Israel-Premier Tech) scrambled across, leaving three in the lead chased by ten: Holter and Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Narváez, Soto, Guillermo Silva (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Tom Pidcock (Q36.5)
Van Aert, Evenepoel and Blackmore made their way up the S-Bocht to see two laps to go and 48 seconds on the ever-growing chase group, and built on that advantage despite a series of accelerations from the bunch over the flatter section of the course.
The gap began to go the other direction as the race hit the triple Hertstraat/Moskesstraat/Holstheide climbs, going as low as 39 seconds before the trio got back to their team time trial effort. With 25km to go, they had 54 seconds and were cooperating nicely, but were up against a large and motivated chasing peloton.
With Alpecin-Deceuninck, EF Education-EasyPost and Cofidis taking turns, the leaders had just 33 seconds on the S-Bocht Overijse summit at the bell.
Once the leaders hit the Hertstraat, Evenepoel put in a dig, kicking Blackmore out the back but not dislodging Van Aert. The two Belgian superstars got to work holding off the chasers, with Blackmore going back to the peloton.
On the Moskestraat, Evenepoel tried to get rid of Van Aert but failed. Baudin attacked from the field and chased solo ahead of Leknessund, only a few seconds ahead of the bunch.
There were no further attacks between Van Aert and Evenepoel on the Holstheide as the duo knew they needed to save their efforts to avoid being caught over the final 7.7km. When they saw a minute's gap with 2km remaining, the two Belgians looked at each other before Evenepoel got back to pulling them to the final climb.
Evenepoel kept a close eye on Van Aert as they started up the S-Bocht, the fans going wild to see their two heroes battling it out.
With 1km to go, Evenepoel was still on the front, looking back as if he was leading a match sprint. Van Aert held his nerve, waiting until the final few hundred metres, but when Evenepoel opened up his sprint, Van Aert could not come around.
Results
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