Milan Menten gave Lotto-Dstny a decisive win in Dour at Le Samyn, beating Hugo Hofstetter (Arkea-Samsic) into second place and Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) in third as a crash involving Kasper Asgreen and Dries de Bondt within the final kilometre fractured an already reduced peloton.
The 26-year-old Belgian’s win came after a day of aggressive back-to-back attacks and breakaways, where Menten’s teammate Victor Campenaerts was among the most active and aggressive in the pack.
Menten made his final sprint on the shallow climb of the final kilometre, edging out Hofsetter and Theuns after the reduced peloton pulled back a last-minute attack led by Trek-Segafredo.
Among the major race favourites was Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-Quickstep) who suffered two crashes through the race, which took him out of contention for the finish and disarmed Soudal-Quickstep’s lead-out ambitions.
“It’s like a dream, I don’t believe it,” Menten said following the race. “It’s absolutely unbelievable.
“We had a plan to make it a very hard race and that really suits me,” he said. “It was ideal with Victor [Campenaerts] and Jaarne [van der Paar] at the front and I could just relax at the back. It was about waiting and waiting.”
“A finish like this is good for me because it climbs a little bit after a really hard race. The team has given me confidence and that does a lot for me. It’s my first win for my new team Lotto-Dstny, and like a dream.”
Seemingly affected by the cold weather conditions, second-place Hofstetter said, “I’m cold, I took my gloves off, I just couldn’t feel anything.”
“It’s like it is, the knife has two edges and I had a lot of bad luck.”
How it unfolded
It was a sunny day in Quaregnon when the peloton set off north to begin the 208km circuit in the Wallonian countryside, but in a bitter cold which saw most of the riders layered in long sleeves throughout the stage, and bemoaned by riders after the race finish.
The route was almost indistinguishable from the 2022 circuit, taking in five cobbled sectors, two of which – Côte de la Roquette and Côte des Nonettes – also inflicted short sharp climbs.
An early crash saw strong race favourite Fabio Jakobsen hit the ground, but he was quick to remount and continue in the main peloton, albeit with some visible scratches.
A breakaway of seven riders moved clear of the main peloton 60km into the race. The break contained Philippe Jacob (Ecoflo Chronos), Mads Østergaard Kristensen (Leopard TOGT Pro Cycling), Gilles De Wilde (Flanders – Baloise), Tord Gudmestad (Uno-X Pro Cycling), Lenaic Langella (Ecoflo Chronos), Kamil Małecki (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Stanisław Aniołkowski (Human Powered Health).
The leading group was allowed to build a gap of over five minutes on the main group at its peak. Langella was dropped by the leading group before Mads Østergaard also found himself left behind following a mechanical with 80km remaining.
In the main group, Soudal-Quickstep positioned Jakobsen carefully ahead of the back-to-back Côte de la Roquette and Chemin de Wihéries cobbled sectors, and the sprinters’ teams began to dramatically increase the pace as the peloton approached the 60km mark.
The peloton swallowed up the breakaway with 57km remaining, as attacks began to spark – with Jasper Stuyven of Trek-Segafredo and Victor Campenaerts of Lotto-Dstny placing persistent efforts.
Misfortune struck Fabio Jakobsen again when he crashed at 45km to go, with broadcasters showing him lying in a residential hedge on the roadside – he approached the medical car before resuming his ride, but minutes in arrears and unable to contest the finish.
Côte de la Roquette and Chemin de Wihéries double at 40km remaining, where a group of around 20 riders broke clear. As the group bridged back the break was caught, but the peloton became notably fractured, with a split by led by Lotto-Dstny emerging with 35km to go.
The gap grew to the one-minute mark at 25km remaining, as it seemed increasingly likely the race winner would be from this leading group as the field entered the final lap.
As the lead group took on Rue de Vert Pignon with 20km remaining, an attack came from Victor Campenaerts which led to a break of six riders containing Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Stan Dewulf (AG2R Citroën), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Jaarne van der Paar (Lotto-Dstny), Jenthe Biermans (Arkéa Samsic) and Campenaerts.
The breakaway pulled out around 20 seconds riding into the 15km mark, while an initially orderly chase from Soudal-Quickstep and Arkea-Samsic seemed to lose all focus, allowing the breakaway to keep distance with 10km to go – entering Côte des Nonnettes with a 16-second advantage.
However, as Team DSM finally mounted an aggressive chase, aided by Team Flanders-Baloise, the breakaway’s lead became vanishingly small, before the break was finally absorbed with only 4km remaining. Leading to a final brief attack from Trek-Segafredo riders before a sprint finish from the reduced peloton.
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