It became a matter of last man standing at the Classic Brugge-De Panne on Wednesday, where Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE Team Emirates XRG) escaped a sequence of crashes to win from a reduced bunch.
There were four crashes inside the final 5km at the Belgian one-day race, the last of which came inside the closing kilometre, and took Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) out of contention.
From a reduced bunch, Molano sprung an early sprint with around 400m remaining, and held off Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan in a photo-finish. Madis Mihkels (EF Education-EasyPost) finished third.
"This final is really, really dangerous, really fast," Molano told the TV cameras afterwards.
"After the last corner I was put in a good position after the small road and I tried. I saw 500m and I took the corner really fast and I started the sprint. It was really long but I looked behind and no one was following me, then I was full-gas for the final.
Asked about the crash-marred finale, Molano said: "I saw three crashes. One touched me on the leg... It's really, really fast, really dangerous this race, but I'm very happy."
"It's my first win of the season and also my biggest victory in a one-day race so it's really special," Molano continued. "There were many crashes today and I hope everyone is okay, it was really crazy out there today."
A sprint was expected at the end of the race which was won by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) for the last two years, but four crashes in the final 5km took many favourites out, including Merlier and Kooij, but also Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels). Merlier and Kooij's crash came at a narrowing of the course just after the flamme rouge.
"We controlled the race, it’s always not good to give them a victory," Milan said post-race on TV. "Molano was super-strong. I wasn’t expecting someone to come from behind. I did my best. We had many crashes, and also before the last corner. I heard, I thought it was really big and I hope that no-one is badly hurt. It was a difficult final, one of the more dangerous ones I have done.
"The parcours was pretty dangerous, with this run-in to the final kilometre. From three lanes to one, and then a right turn, a bit twisty a few hundred metres to go. This made everyone a bit nervous and a bit dangerous. Of course, everyone wants to stay in the front and win, and it’s more and more."
It is not the first time that race safety has been questioned this year, with teams pulling out of the early-season Étoile de Bessèges after a series of incidents, including vehicles on the course.
Any serious incident at this stage of the season could prove impactful for the remainder of the Classics season, with the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday, and Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday.
