photo credits @ Scheldepris
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) continued his winning ways, after the German rider claimed today’s Scheldeprijs in a hard-fought, messy bunch sprint ahead of Sam Welsford (Team DSM) in Schoten, Belgium.
Meanwhile, Mark Cavendish freelanced his way to the front to seize the final spot on the podium, after the British rider overhauled Trek-Segafredo’s Edward Theuns just before the line.
Things initially didn’t look promising for Philipsen during the closing 200 mentors, as the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was boxed in behind his own teammate Jasper De Buyst. However, he managed to slalom his way between Theuns, the barriers and a fast-charging Cavendish to seize the victory.
“It wasn’t that easy. The legs – I felt it at the end. It was not a typical hard race in the Scheldeprijs like we saw in the last years with the wind, but it also made it an exciting sprint at the end,” Jakobsen said.
“The team did an amazing job. We didn’t really have a meeting for how we were going to do it but all these guys are really experienced in lead-outs and they know how to bring me in the best spot. I’m really happy to win it now twice – hopefully I can add some more in the future,” he added.
Race Highlights
It took 10 kilometers of racing, before a 7-rider breakaway group containing the likes of Giulio Masotto (Team Corratec) and Vincent Hoppezak (Beat Cycling) managed to jettison the peloton.
Despite opening up a three minute gap over the chase, the breakaway group was generally well-marshaled by the peloton.
Indeed, with 40 kilometers to go, the peloton had reduced the escapees’ advantage to under a minute, as they started to play cat and mouse with each other in order to force a bold move.
With the leaders heading towards the final lap of three finishing circuits, three of breakaway riders were caught by the Alpecin- Deceuninck led peloton, while the remaining four of Brim Dissel (Beat Cycling), Ceriel Desal (Bingoal WB), Ruben Apers (Team Flanders-Baloise) and Filippo Ridolfo (Team Novo Nordisk) continued to cling onto a 17-second advantage as they reached the final 10 kilometers.
However, Matthieu van der Poel’s (Alpecin-Deceuninck) move to the front of the peloton finally lead to the breakaway being reined-in with 4 kilometers to go.
The road opened up in during the final 300 meters, with three-time winner Cavendish among those to move up the field and hit the front, but it was Philipsen who found the extra speed to accelerate to victory.
Meanwhile, Welsford followed Philipsen’s path to take second, with Cavendish rounding out the podium to secure his best result of the season so far.
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