Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne gives the sprinters a rare opportunity to fight for a prestigious one-day race, even though past editions have shown that audacious long-range attacks have a chance of going all the way to the end, despite the last of the day’s many hills coming more than 50 kilometers from the finish.
Bad luck for the Wolfpack in Kuurne
Our team entered the 75th edition of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne with high hopes, especially as it had in its ranks the defending champion, Fabio Jakobsen, who had shown a good form in the beginning of the season. But everything changed 80 kilometers from the finish, when a crash that took place in the middle of the bunch isolated half of our team, the riders caught behind the pile-up kissing goodbye to any chance of making it back in the main group.
The European Champion, together with Davide Ballerini and Florian Sénéchal, remained Soudal Quick-Step’s only men in what was left of the peloton, from where five riders attacked with more than 70 kilometers to go, opening a gap that in the end proved to be insurmountable, despite the best efforts of our team, who aided by just one other squad chased hard to reduce the quintet’s advantage.
The leaders remained at the front until the finish, and Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) took the victory, while from behind Fabio Jakobsen sprinted to ninth place: “Today I felt quite good, but we were unlucky with the crash that basically left half of our team out of the peloton. The rest of us gave our best, but it was difficult against such a strong leading group. It wasn’t our day, but the important thing is that we fought hard and that the condition is there for the upcoming races.”
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
