Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne came down to a bunch sprint after a brilliantly attacking race through the cobbles and hills of Flanders, with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) storming to victory ahead of Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-PremierTech) on his 27th birthday.
The 77th addition of this race took on a 196.9km route starting in Kortrijk and finishing in Kuurne, including seven cobbled sectors and 20 named hills with the classic lap around the finishing circuit.
This race has seen anything from solo winners to mass bunch sprints. Various attacks went off the front of the peloton as the race left the start but it took an extremely long time for the breakaway to form. But, after 45km of racing a group of seven riders managed to force a meaningful gap and get away from the peloton.
Wave after wave of counter-attack from behind brought back the break, with the sprinters' teams taking full control and drag the break back with one lap to go.
The pace was rapid and Alpecin-Deceuninck timed their leadout beautifully for their main man, Philipsen, who took the victory in a very powerful sprinting performance.
"It's a little bit unbelievable to win today on my 27th birthday, for sure gives me some extra power!" the Belgian joked at the finish. "It all came together today, we had a really strong team in the end and it wouldn't be possible without them.
"I knew the chances of a bunch [sprint] were pretty high, the part in between with the hills there were some movements but there was always still a big bunch fighting to get back always, so it's really difficult to get away."
How it unfolded
The riders involved in the day's break were Dries De Bondt (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Huub Artz (Intermarche-Wanty), Ward Vanhoof (Flanders-Baloise), Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor), Tomáš Kopecký (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Ceriel Desal (Wagner Bazin WB), Axandre Van Petegem (Wagner Bazin WB). They had a maximum gap of over four and a half minutes on the peloton.
Heading into the final 100km Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) was dropped from the bunch, while there was an attack by Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) and Thimo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
The latter had a front wheel puncture which saw him drop out of the attacking group and to the back of the peloton. Behind this new move there was wave after wave of attacks, mainly led by Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot, but Lidl-Trek kept a stranglehold on the race with Jonathan Milan a big favourite at the start of the day.
On the hardest climb of the race, the cobbled Mont Saint Laurent, there were more attacks with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Stan Dewulf getting clear and bridging to Askey, who was dropped by Narváez.
This group swelled with 16 riders getting away from the main peloton with 80km to go, and Narváez dropping back into the group too. Just 5km later the new attacking group was dragged back under control by the sprinters' teams, but the likes of Wellens kept on trying to force a break.
On the final cobbled climb, the Oude Kruisberg, Jorgenson and Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) tried once again: Van Aert put in a very long acceleration on the front but he wasn’t able to split the group.
Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) went off the front of the pack on his own and put in a great effort pushing across to the break. Behind him, Wellens kicked again and made his way across to Bissegger before he got to the break.
In the peloton the pace dropped dramatically as the favourites blocked any attacks on the Côte du Trieu before kicking hard over the top, stretching the bunch out into one long line and two big groups, but Soudal-QuickStep dragged it all back together.
On the final climb of the day, the Kluisberg, with 60km to go, Van Aert attacked hard with only Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) able to follow the superstar. But with Adrià not working, Van Aert decided that he wouldn't drag the Spaniard to the finish and sat up to rejoin the Soudal-QuickStep-led peloton.
After the duo were brought back it was the sprinters' teams that took over in the peloton, keeping the pace high as they tried to control the gap to the break and dragging them back. An attack in the break by De Bondt with just under 40km to go managed to do nothing but drop his teammate, Bissegger, as well as Van Petegem with them both quickly getting caught by the peloton.
The remaining seven riders in the break continued to attack each other with Wellens going solo on the final cobbled sector of the Beerbosstraat with De Bondt, Mayrhofer and Desal able to follow him.
The four riders who kicked clear got their gap up to 42” again but the sprinters' teams in the peloton got everything under control and the leaders had just 15” heading into the final 20km.
As they crossed the circuit's finish line for the penultimate time the breakaway tried one more time to get away, with Mayrhofer the last man clear before the break was caught, with just over 10km to go.
The pace continued to ratchet up as the kilometres ticked down through the technical lap around Kuurne, with Alpecin-Deceuninck waiting until the final 2km to bring Philipsen towards the front. The team executed the leadout perfectly with Jonas Rickaert and Kaden Groves setting up their man, with Kooij not able to swing around the Belgian, and Israel-Premier Tech’s Hofstetter following the wheels all the way to third place on the day.
Results
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