Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) is making a habit of placing himself in elite company at some of the hardest races on the calendar. At Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne last month, he found himself in the decisive break with Wout van Aert. At Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday, the New Zealander matched Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) until the steepest portion of the final ascent of the Kemmelberg.
Like at Kuurne, the results sheet here does scant justice to the quality of Pithie’s performance. A 26th place finish in the peloton that came in 16 seconds down on the winner Pedersen doesn’t even begin to tell the story of Pithie’s assured Gent-Wevelgem debut.
The New Zealander was present and correct when the peloton first split in the crosswinds at De Moeren with 150km still to race, and he had the strength to track Van der Poel when he started running through his repertoire on the first time up the Kemmel.
Pithie remained in the front group of seven when Van der Poel forced the issue again on the dirt roads of the Plugstreets, and he was the only man still able to follow the world champion and Pedersen on the second haul up the Kemmelberg.
The 21-year-old applied the lessons of Kuurne thereafter by dosing his efforts carefully ahead of the final assault on the climb. It’s testimony to his burgeoning reputation that Pedersen and Van der Poel had essentially struck a tacit agreement to do what they could to distance him on the final ascent.
“I think I played my cards right today,” Pithie said. “I worked when I had to with Mads and Van der Poel. I was able to follow Van der Poel when he went on the Plugstreets between the first and second Kemmel. I don’t think I’ve ever gone so deep in my life. That was a killer race.
“I knew I had to gamble a little bit by sitting on and trying to save my legs in the final, because when those two go, they’re so hard to follow. I wasn’t working as much with them as I could have been, but that was a tactical decision.
“I found at Kuurne that I got dropped when I worked with Wout van Aert and the other guys, so I tried to play it a little bit differently today. I still got dropped, but I can be happy with how I rode.”
Finisher
Pithies’ rapid finish has already carried him to the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and a spell in the overall lead at Paris-Nice this year. Small wonder that…
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