After looking threatening all Opening Weekend, Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) made the most of his top form with victory in the sprint at the Ename Samyn Classic, as the heart of late attacker Per Strand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike) was broken in the final kilometre.
Hagenes led for much of the final 30km, and despite looking at times like he was going to make it home for a top solo victory as his Visma teammates discouraged the chasers, he ran out of steam on the final uphill drag to the line in Dour and was caught by the peloton.
How it unfolded
As cobbled racing continued at the Ename Samyn Classic on Tuesday in Wallonia, a five-man breakaway escape from the peloton, sparked by Bogdan Zabelinskiy (Aarco), who was joined by Baptiste Vadic (TotalEnergies), Stijn Appel (BEAT CC p/b Saxo), Kévin Avoine (Van Rysel Roubaix) and Lucas Bénéteau (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93).
On a dry sunny day in the French-speaking part of Belgium, the gap was kept tight as the 203.8km race from Quaregnon to Dour raged on, with the peloton not much further behind than 1:30 for much of the opening 120km.
Entering the final 75km, this gap went out to two minutes, with Ed Uptegrove (EEW-VDK Cyclingteam) and Arnaud Tendon (Van Rysel…
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