The young Belgian racked up his sixth success of the season.
Thibaut Van Damme emerged as the fastest from a select group in the finale of the one-day race held around Denderwindeke to take the victory Saturday afternoon for the Soudal Quick-Step U19 team.
The 17-year-old, who has had an impressive campaign so far this season, produced a superb display in the 95.2km race. Van Damme covered all the attacks, booking a place in the main move of the day, and keeping things together there despite numerous attacks in the closing kilometers before showing his remarkable sprint in the last 300 meters to capture the win ahead of Nikita Babovich (Cannibal B Victorious) and Oscar Loy (Trustup CC-Chevigny Junior).
“I am happy with this victory. I came into the race with a lot of motivation, because I knew that the parcours was a rolling and demanding one. Things were pretty quiet in the beginning, but then, riders started attacking and I made sure of closing down some of these moves before a ten-man group formed. There was a nice cooperation there and we quickly opened a 45-second gap which we then expanded to more than two minutes.”
“On the last two laps, many attacks came but the group remained as one, and in the end, we had a small sprint. I started my effort quite early, because I was feeling really strong, and I’m delighted I could finish it off. It’s great to get that winning feeling back”, Thibaut said after delivering our Junior’s team 15th victory of the year.
Photo credit: ©Wout Beel