Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) shattered Wout Van Aert's and Visma-Lease a Bike's dream scenario of a team victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen, beating Van Aert, Tiesj Benoot and Matteo Jorgenson in a four-rider sprint.
The quartet escaped with 55km to race, with Visma-Lease a Bike seemingly assured to repeat the historic podium sweeps of teams like Mapei and QuickStep at Paris-Roubaix. Instead, Powless was like Ian Stannard when he defeated a trio of QuickStep riders to win the 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Van Aert could only drop his head in defeat as he saw victory escape him and his team, with Benoot third and Jorgenson fourth. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) won the sprint for fifth place at 45 seconds, after unsuccessfully trying to chase the attack down.
"I really can't believe it, "Powless said in disbelief after shouting and hugging teammates and staff at the finish line.
"I felt really strong today but I didn't think I had any chance to win from that group. I thought I was riding for second place. I just can't believe it, I'm so happy.
"It's been a rough spring for me so far, but today I'm so happy to be back where I know I can be."
Powless has won the Clasica San Sebastian and other one-day races but this was special and gives him huge confidence for the Tour of Flanders.
"This is the biggest win of my life," he said.
"I hope I can fight for the win [on Sunday], at least fight for the podium. In these races, you need a bit of luck, but you also need confidence, so I definitely gained one of those today."
Powless opted to ride with Van Aert, Benoot and Jorgenson in the attack, knowing he always had a chance in the sprint.
"It was a constant inner struggle, even for my director in the car, he was going back and forth on whether or not I should ride because we had quite a few numbers behind," Powless explained.
"I felt really good. I felt really solid on the cobbles, so I didn't want to sprint from a bigger group. It was a rock and a hard place but I'm proud of the way I rode."
Powless rode an intelligent sprint.
"I thought Wout what was going to be the strongest in the sprint, they were really betting on him but I never thought in a million years I would beat him in a sprint, in a race like this," he said.
"I came in with a little more speed in the final corner and I was three or four kilometres an hour faster than Wout when he started this sprint. I just went all the way to the line and I was able to carry the speed quite well. There's not a lot of space between that last corner and the finish line so I just had to start my sprints immediately and pray."
How it unfolded
Dwars door Vlaanderen was raced at a record speed of 46.587 km/h due to strong cross and tailwinds and clear spring-like blue skies.
Strangely no break got away for the first 60km but then the race soon exploded.
Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty), Joshua Giddings (Lotto), Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Rasmus Pedersen (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Ceriel Desal (Wagner Bazin WB) and Petr Kelemen (Tudor Pro Cycling) eventually opened a gap but never gained more than a minute.
On the Knokteberg climb, with 91km to race, Van Aert made his intentions clear and soon shook out the peloton, creating a front chase group.
Pedersen also tried to be aggressive but was kept in check. Then a counter-attack came from Powless, Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) and Fabio Vandenbossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck) got away as riders tried to anticipate any major selection.
The three joined Danish duo Pedersen and Bjerg up front but another major change was coming. On the approach to the Berg Ten Houte climb with 56km to race, Van Aert, Benoot, Jorgenson, plus Edoardo Affini and Dylan van Baarle hit the front and gapped the peloton in the crosswind in perfect Flemish racing.
Van Aert, Benoot, Jorgenson and Affini then powered on, with the Italian doing a huge turn until he was distanced on the second climb of the Knokteberg. They caught the attackers but only Powless could stay with them.
The peloton refused to give up for a long time, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and others driving the chase and trying to convince others to help them.
For 20km the time gap remained below 30 seconds. Then the chase lost conviction and the Visma trio and Powless gained confidence.
A crash saw Nils Politt (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) go down hard before the flat cobbled roads made for a spectacular finale and little doubt that Visma-Lease a Bike would pull off the victory.
Powless tried to miss some turns, but Benoot forced him to help by taking him out of the back of the attack with 25km to go. The American knew it was better for him to collaborate and then try his chances, even in a three-to-one finish.
Visma decided to stay together and ride to the finish to set up Van Aert instead of attacking Powless but this proved to be their undoing.
Powless was strong and out to win. He managed to sit on Van Aert's wheel into the fast-sweeping final corner and had more speed in the acceleration to the line.
From what seemed like a sure defeat, Powless snatched the biggest and most dramatic victory of his career. For Van Aert and Visma-Lease a Bike, it was one of their biggest defeats.
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