Huub Artz gave the Netherlands their fourth gold medal of the 2024 UEC Road European Championships in the U23 men's road race, outsprinting Niklas Behrens (Germany) at the end of the 162km race in Hasselt. Frenchman Léandre Lozouet rounded out the podium to take the bronze medal 10 seconds later.
Artz, Behrens and Lozouet went away in the winning move with over 40km to go ahead of the day's final climbs of the Kolmontberg and Zammelenberg.
Scattered chase groups behind looked at one point to be dragging back the 30-second gap the leaders enjoyed over the final climb, but there wasn't enough strength or coordination behind to fully eat into the lead on the closing local laps.
14km from the line, as the riders passed through the finish line for the penultimate time, just 20 seconds separated the leaders from the chase of Mats Wenzel (Luxembourg) and Fabian Weiss (Switzerland).
However, that was as close as those behind would get to the front of the race, leaving the three up front to decide the medal positions. Inside the final 5km, Lozouet was forced to let go of gold and silver as Behrens attacked to leave him behind.
Artz stuck with the German, however, and had enough in the sprint to just edge out the 20-year-old in the finishing sprint.
"It's amazing. I didn't expect to win," Artz said after taking the win. "I was thinking all week 'How can I possibly win?'
"We had a good group with three Dutch riders and then we went early with three of us but we were all strong riders. In the end, it would be a matter of who had the fastest legs and it was me.
"I said to my directeur sportif that I think it'll be a sprint and I was waiting, waiting. In the end, the race broke open earlier than I thought. I'm happy that it turned out like this. It was perfect."
How it unfolded
With the time trialing over and done with at this year's UEC Road European Championships, attention on Friday turned to the road races, with the U23 men tackling a 162km course between Heusden-Zolder and Hasselt after the U23 women had earlier opened the road racing action.
The course featured six cobbled sectors including two major cobbled climbs. Two ascents of the Kolmontberg and Zammelenberg both came on two laps of a challenging Limburg circuit.
Carl Kagevi (Sweden), Halvor Sandstad (Norway), Stian Rosenlund (Denmark), Julian Borresch (Germany), Mats Wenzel (Luxembourg), Roman Holzer (Switzerland) and Mateusz Gajdulewicz (Poland) formed the first breakaway of the day, but with the Belgian and Dutch teams controlling the pace, their lead never went much over half a minute.
Once the race reached the Limburg circuit, another group got away with French trio Pierre Gautherat, Matys Grisel and Léandre Lozouet joined by Dutch trio of Huub Artz, Tibor del Grosso and Jesse Kramer, as well as Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen (Denmark, Alessandro Borgo (Italy), Niklas Behrens (Germany), Fabian Weiss (Switzerland), Matyas Kopecky (Czechia), and Alexandre Kess (Luxembourg).
The first climbs of the Kolmontberg and Zammelenberg sparked a counterattack of nine riders as the race reached the cobbles of Manshoven where Lozouet, Artz and Behrens got away from the leaders.
With more cobbles lying ahead on the Kriezel, their lead grew over the 13 chasers – Belgians Steffen De Schuyteneer and Sente Sentjens, plus Gautherat, Grisel, Del Groso, Kramer, Pedersen, Borgo, Christen, Weiss, Kopecky, Kess and Wenzel.
On the Zammelenberg, the chase group lost Grisel, while the peloton behind was in tatters. With 35km to go, Wenzel and Weiss attacked to try to go across but struggled to close the gap, which held at just over 30 seconds at 20km to go.
The second chase group featuring the Belgians was long gone and lay almost a minute further behind, with the peloton 2:30 from the leaders. Up front, the leading trio had plenty of work to do to hold off the chase behind, but with the closest groups splitting into ones and twos on the toughest sections of the course, they just had to keep working together.
The leaders continued towards the finish holding a slim lead of never more than 30 seconds, but it proved to be enough to settle the race for the title as they fought amongst themselves during the closing circuit in Hasselt.
In the end, it was Artz who prevailed in the sprint for the line, outpacing Behrens after the pair had distanced Lozouet a handful of kilometres away from the finish.
Results
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