Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) powered to victory atop the Col du Horlitin to claim victory in the Circuit Franco Belge.
The Eritrean played off a late attack from teammate Lorenzo Rota, then patiently waited for his rivals to burn themselves out on the final climb before sprinting to the line in a perfectly timed acceleration.
Axel Zingle (Cofidis) and Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) rounded out the podium in second and third, respectively.
How it unfolded
The 190.6km route was riddled with bergs, in particular in the second half of the race when riders had to tackle a circuit that included the Col du Horlitin and Trieu-Knokteberg as well as a third climb that gave intermediate sprint prizes on each of the five laps.
Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders-Baloise), Nathan Smith (Novo Nordisk), Maximilien Juillard (Van Rysel-Roubaix), Martijn Rasenberg (Parkhotel Valkenburg), and Theo Bonnet (Philippe Wagner/Bazin) made the early breakaway, building a lead of almost five minutes before Intermarché and Alpecin-Deceuninck started to bring the gap down.
Rasenberg won the first three intermediate sprints, while Vercouille won the first two KOMs on the Col du Horlitin and Trieu-Knokteberg.
However, the gap was down to a minute as they started the circuits and when the breakaway hit the Col du Horlitin with 68.9 km to go, their gap was plummeting rapidly.
Bonnet surged on the climb, and only Rasenberg could hold his wheel, but their time out front came to an end a short time later. With 60.4km to go, the peloton was back together.
On the next trip over the Knokteberg, the peloton stretched out, and gaps began to open. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) launched a move after the descent. He was joined by Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto-Dstny) and Jérémy Leveau (Van Rysel-Roubaix) to make a second attack.
However, Leveau couldn’t hang on in the next climb. The duo ahead built up a lead of almost a minute, but they were back in the fold with 24.6km to go.
Sjoerd Bax (UAE Team Emirates), Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Wanty), and Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X) escaped on the Knokteberg on the final lap and held a 10-second lead heading toward the final kilometre but had to tackle the Col du Horlitin for the final time to get to the finish line.
Tiller kept going as his two companions sat up but was caught, and Girmay won the sprint to the line.
Results
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