Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) prevailed in a improbable last-lap battle to assert the victory within the Superprestige in Diegem.
Niels Vandeputte prolonged his lead within the collection with second place whereas European champion Thibau Nys (Baloise Trek) could not clip in after the run-up simply earlier than the dash and light to 3rd.
“Each win is essential,” Sweeck mentioned. “Yesterday in Besançon I had a extremely dangerous day – at this time it is a large distinction and I am actually pleased to take the victory.”
Nys and Sweeck traded blows within the fiercely contested remaining lap, every rider making a number of passes to attempt to maintain the lead, however Sweeck received out heading into the run-up that got here simply earlier than the paved ending straight.
“I knew you needed to be on the entrance within the final lap,” Sweeck mentioned. “We had been simply sprinting the entire lap – it was a loopy final two minutes.”
There was a fierce battle for the opening shot that left Lars van der Haar practically lacking the activate the slick pavement. A crash behind him held up Thibau Nys because the charging bunch was led onto the filth by Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
US champion Andrew Strohmeyer had a terrific begin and confirmed off his technical expertise with a daring assault within the difficult off-camber part, however he light again by the top of the lap.
An assault from Sweeck pulled away a bunch with Michael Vanthourenhout, Del Grosso and Felipe Orts, however extra riders latched on by the top of lap 3.
Vanthourenhout attacked on the off-camber, stretching out of 15 chasers led by Nys, who recovered from his interrupted begin.
Sequence chief Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck) joined teammate Del Grosso and Sweeck in bridging throughout to Vanthourenhout – however then Vanthourenhout needed to cease within the pits after having an issue together with his sneakers.
Vandeputte moved to the entrance with Sweeck and Nys because the chasing group began to indicate cracks. Del Grosso and Orts misplaced floor on the climbing part however had been nonetheless only some seconds behind as Nys led throughout the road with 4 laps to go.
Vanthourenhout made a formidable chase again into seventh place, latching onto Ryan Kamp (Alpecin-Deceuninck Devo) and attending to the entrance group earlier than the top of the lap – making a lead group of six with Orts combating to get on the wheels simply behind.
The sand pit divided the leaders into two teams, with Nys, Sweeck and Vanthourenhout the strongest.
Nys started pushing the tempo in earnest with three to go, however wasn’t in a position to make a distinction. As Nys sat up, Vandeputte made it throughout to the trio first, then halfway into the lap the chasers, led by Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) bridged up, making it ten lead riders heading into the penultimate lap with the addition of Vandeputte, Del Grosso, Kamp, Lars van der Haar (Baloise-Trek), Orts and Jente Michels (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Early within the penultimate lap, Vanthourenhout regarded as if he crashed off-camera and Sweeck opened up a sizeable hole on the remainder of the group. Nys led the chase and was nearly on the wheel of the Crelan-Corendon rider by the bell lap together with Vandeputte.
It was Vandeputte’s flip to assault in the beginning of the lap in defence of his lead within the collection. He briefly opened up a niche on Sweeck on the paved climb the place Nys sprinted throughout the hole to hitch them, making it three leaders as soon as once more.
Nys made a phenomenal cross on Sweeck heading into the filth climb – a transfer his father could be happy with – after which attacked out of the sand pit to attempt to maintain a niche.
Sweeck made a cross on the flyover however Nys received again round solely to have Sweeck get in entrance once more earlier than the run-up.
Nys could not clip in and never solely misplaced the dash to Sweeck, but in addition needed to watch as Vandeputte got here previous to steal second.
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