photo credits @ WTFK
Jasper Philipsen took a spectacular victory in today’s Flanders Fields (formerly known as Gent-Wevelgem), after breakaway riders Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert were caught with one kilometer to go.
Just two days after Van der Poel held off four chasers after a 40km solo break to win the E3 Saxo Classic race, the Dutchman and his old rival Van Aert came up just one kilometer short of another stunning escape.
Having gone clear with 36km to ride, the pair were caught 4km from the finish by a counterattack from Belgian Alec Segaert before the peloton swallowed them up with 1,000m to go.
Van der Poel’s Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate Philipsen had the strongest sprint for the line, with Dane Tobias Lund Andresen in second and Van Aert’s Visma-Lease a Bike partner Christophe Laporte taking third.
It was agonisingly close for Van der Poel and Van Aert — two one-day classics specialists and long-time rivals — after 240km was renamed this year In Flanders Fields-From Middelkerke to Wevelgem.
Van Aert lit up the race with around 57km to ride on the tough, cobbled Kemmelberg climb, bursting out of the peloton and taking Van der Poel and Florian Vermeersch with him.
From there, the trio caught the earlier breakaway riders and formed a lead group of nine, which built a lead of more than 40 seconds on the peloton.
Van der Poel later put in a searing acceleration as they tackled the Kemmelberg with 36km remaining, with only Van Aert able to follow and Vermeersch falling 10 seconds by the summit, while the peloton crested a minute behind.
Vermeersch was later reeled in by the group with 12km to go.
The fast-finishing peloton closed to within 10 seconds of the leading duo with about six kilometers to go.
Segaert counter-attacked out of the peloton and even caught the pair with 4km left.
He then surged for the finish on his own as the trio was finally caught with a kilometer left, but the race instead culminated into a sprint finale.
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