The Dutchman beat Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) to the finish line on the 4% incline in Nokere, this time run on a different road to the top of the hill, avoiding the dangerous run-ins and cobbled finishing road of previous editions.
Despite that altered closing parcours, a familiar mass crash struck the middle of the peloton inside the final kilometre, with race favourite Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceunick) among several riders hitting the deck, just three days ahead of his Milan-San Remo defence.
Up front, a variety of hopefuls flowed to the front on the tough finishing run, with Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) at one point looking a likely contender.
However, the Briton went too early, leaving others to take over. Milan Menten (Lotto) briefly led, by Eekhoff came through next with perfect timing to take the win.
Moschetti was a clear second but couldn’t challenge Eekhoff, while further back Luke Lamperti (Soudal-QuickStep) beat out Milan Fretin (Cofidis) and Menten for third place.
“It’s a pretty important win. It’s my first pro win in a stage instead of a time trial. I’m really happy to finish it off today,” Eekhoff said after the finish.
“I had a couple of hard weeks after a hard crash in the AlUla Tour. I’m super stoked to make this comeback.
“It was a long drag uphill. I was positioning my teammate Pavel Bittner. The guys went from far, but everyone started kind of dying. I was waiting for a while and then I thought ‘OK, I’ll just launch it now’. I continued to the finish line and no-one else came past.”
Nils Eekhoff of Team Picnic PostNL celebrates victory at Nokere Koerse (Image credit: Rhode Van Elsen/Getty Images)
How it unfolded The 79th edition of Nokere Koerse would take the riders on a 188km route from Deinze to Nokere featuring a slew of hills and cobbled sectors along the way, including four ascents of the famous closing Nokereberg.
The route would be slightly altered from previous years due to safety measures following crashes leading into the finish. This time around, a different ascent up the Nokereberg – without cobblestones – would be in use, though sprinters would still have to cope with a 4% gradient to the line.
Attacks flew during the opening 20km of the day, with numerous riders attempting to make the break of the day. A move wouldn’t go clear before that point, however, at which point Lennert Teugels (Tartoletto-Isorex) and Rasmus Bøgh Wallin (Uno-X Mobility) jumped clear at the front.
The pair were quickly joined by another pair of riders in Jelle Johannik (Unibet Tietema Rockets) and Alex Colman (Flanders-Baloise), making it a four-man break of the day.
The quartet would race to a maximum advantage of two minutes in the early stages of the race as teams including Alpecin-Deceuninck, UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and Tudor settled in to work at the head of the peloton.
Those behind in the peloton hoping to keep things on track for a mass sprint finish would keep the break on a tight leash, holding the four leaders to an advantage of 1:30 or less as the riders raced onto the closing circuits around Nokere.
Once the break hit the Nokereberg for the first time, with just under 100km to go, the four men were holding on with a reduced 50-second gap. A brief split in the peloton and a short-lived move led by Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Deceuninck) at 80km to go didn’t change much in the overall picture, however.
At 52km from the finish, the break was reduced to three men when Colman dropped away on the Lange Ast hill. He was brought back to the peloton 10km later, just before the third ascent of the Nokereberg.
On the way up, there was another split at the head of the peloton, with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) going clear along with Arthur Kluckers (Tudor) and Lukáš Kubiš (Unibet Tietema Rockets).
Further back, a second group of attackers formed, with Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) joined by Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek), Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Erik Resell (Uno-X Mobility).
As Johannik led the break over the top once again, securing the day’s mountain classification prize, the two chase groups soon coalesced into one large chase group, 40 seconds down on the break and 20 up on the peloton, which was led into the long closing 38km lap by Lotto.
The merged group was soon back with the peloton, however, getting reabsorbed – along with Teugels, the next man dropped from the break – at 33km to go.
Alpecin-Deceuninck regained control of the peloton thereafter, while the break continued with a reduced 30-second advantage. With 24km left to run, Bøgh Wallin went solo at the front, leaving Johannik behind to race towards the final 20km with an extended lead of 50 seconds.
The Dane would battle up and over Lange Ast and push on alone, though his lead would slowly be reduced by the chasing pack. At 14km to go, he was 30 seconds up as Alpecin-Deceuninck blazed their way across the cobbled sector at Doorn.
Coming out the other side, he had just 15 seconds as UAE and Tudor joined the fray behind. It was all over for him on the next cobbled stretch at Huisepontweg, leaving a massed peloton led by Alpecin and UAE attackers with 10km to go.
Philipsen was leading the new move off the front, the Belgian joined by several others including Kubiš, Kluckers, Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and Cees Bol (XDS-Astana).
That move would come to an end before the finish though, with another set of attackers trying to go clear in a counter-attack on the Herlegemstraat cobbles at 3.5km to go. No riders could get free, however, leaving the peloton to set up the expected bunch sprint finish.
Alpecin-Deceuninck looked primed to lead out Philipsen to the line, but their hopes went up in smoke when the Belgian was caught in a mass crash in the middle of the peloton after the flamme rouge.
Besides a brief stint up front from Groupama-FDJ, no other team managed to keep control and provide a full lead out on the uphill finish. From the chaos, it was Eekhoff who emerged victorious.
Jasper Philipsen on a section of pavé headed to the finale in Nokere (Image credit: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
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