Under a summer sun and with little wind, the peloton full of big sprinters made a fast course for the 105th edition, exactly 113 years after the first in 1908. The 13 laps through Koolskamp, Egem and Pittem were reeled with an average of 45 km/h .
The flight of the day got lost in the 2nd round with 7 men (Paulus, Van Schip, Van Kessel, Jenner, Bassett, Batt andtabellion). They did not get more than 1.5 minutes from the sprinter teams.
Sam Bennett made his comeback at Deceuninck-Quik Step after injuries and quarrels with Patrick Lefevere, although Fabio Jakobsen was the spearhead.
It was counting down to the bunch sprint. On the way, Quarterman took the place of Tafellion in the breakaway group, who knew it was a lost cause.
The leading group gradually fell apart, Jenner struggled the longest, but with 11 km from the finish the sprint preparation could start.
Jumbo-Visma (Groenewegen), Deceuninck-Quick Step (Jakobsen), Bora (Meeus, Laas), Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert (Planckaert) set up trains and alternated in the final kilometres.
No team could really take control of the sprint preparation, the final kilometer was muddled. Alpecin-Fenix had to come from a bit far, but Rickaert and Taminiaux set off Philipsen nicely in the last corner.
Philipsen, who drove his first race since he had to leave the Vuelta with flu symptoms and 2 stage victories, came out powerful. Groenewegen may have had the fastest sprint, but he came up short. Laas was third, Moschetti fourth, Bonifazio fifth, Planckaert sixth. No trace of Jakobsen.
Philipsen is the first Belgian since Timothy Dupont in 2016 to take the Lions jersey, the trophy associated with the Championship of Flanders. And that on his debut.
“It’s nice to win after being out for a while. I had to leave the Vuelta early, then we have to wait and see how the legs are. It’s nice to win, especially against a number of top sprinters.”
“I knew the sprint was going to be hectic. It was a fairly easy race, everyone was still fairly fresh. With that S-curve at the end, it’s important not to get closed in. I think I just got out of trouble. could hold.”
“I was never worried today, but after a while without a race you always have a little bit of uncertainty. However, the team was confident and worked very well.”
Dylan Groenewegen was happy with his second place: “I feel pretty good about this. I felt tired and weak the past few weeks and had a headache for 4 weeks. I don’t know if it had to do with the vaccine, but I felt really not good. I couldn’t get ahead in the BinckBank Tour either.”
“Last week I felt good again in training. Of course I would have preferred to win today, but I am happy that I was able to ride a nice sprint against Jasper, in which I just fell short. I was a bit late. So congratulations to Jasper and Alpecin-Fenix. We both worked hard for it, but you can’t always win.”
