Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) emerged as the surprise winner of the Bredene Koksijde Classic, out-sprinting Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) and Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Wanty).
A crash in the final bend took out the lead-out for Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) and disrupted the run-in to the finish line, leaving only a dozen riders sprinting for the win.
Groenewegen opened up the sprint first but faded in the headwind. Mozzato capitalised on the move, getting a perfect lead-out from the Dutchman before coming around to snatch only the third victory of his career.
Thijssen started his effort from too far behind and could only manage third.
"I'm super happy especially because the season so far was not super. Today I think I changed a lot," Mozzato said. "To win a race like this is really special because it's a classic in Belgium."
Mozzato proved to be attentive and anonymous throughout the race - the perfect formula to win a Belgian classic. He survived the Kemmelberg and made the split when the bunch shattered in the crosswinds.
"That was the biggest problem of the day. Everybody knew the day would be like this with the echelons and it was super nervous from the start," Mozzato said. With the help of the team I tried to stay in front as possible. Then I survived the Kemmel.
"In the end, I think I did a pretty good job to save some energy throughout the day. This helped me to have a good sprint in the end."
How it unfolded
Riders lined up for the Bredene Koksijde Classic facing typical dreary Belgian weather but not enough wind to create too much havoc.
The riders of the Continental teams were keen to get some television time and Mauro Verwilt (Tarteletto-Isorex) and Jasper Haest (VolkerWessel) made the first successful attack.
Just as they were about to be chased down, Matteo Milan (Lidl-Trek), Jens Reynders (Bingoal WB), Abram Stockman (TDT-Unibet) and Max Kroonen (VolkerWessel) came across and the day's early breakaway formed.
The peloton never let them get more than a minute or two and by the time they reached the Kemmelberg for the first time, they had only 12 seconds in hand.
On the climb, the bunch split and very nearly caught the breakaway as Haest was dropped, but then the peloton sat up and let the gap go back out to a minute and a half.
The pace picked up over the Baneberg and by 82km to go, the breakaway was back in the fold.
A crash with 77.5km to go as the bunch neared the crosswind section helped split up the peloton and soon echelons formed.
Pre-race favourite Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) made the first group but it didn't deter teams from working.
A surge from Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) spat De Lie out but the Belgian sprinter put in a solo effort to get back into the first group with 49km to go.
The second peloton finally bridged across as the wind eased with 28km remaining. Otter Vergaerde (Lidl-Trek) put in a move but was brought back with 18.5km to go.
Politt tried again inside 10km to go and was joined by Daan Hoole, Patrick Eddy (DSM-Firmenich-PostNl), Lampaert and Dries De Pooter (Intermarché-Wanty) but they were unable to make the move work.
Robbe Ghys (Alpecin-Deceuninck) tried to foil the sprinters but was swept up in the dash to the line.
A crash from his teammate disrupted the lead-out in the final kilometre but Luca Mozzato (Arkéa-Samsic) came out on top in the sprint over Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla).
Results
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