Gilbert wins Belgian national road race title

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Five years after his first national road race title, Philippe Gilbert (BMC) rode to his second in Lacs de l’Eau d’Heure. Gilbert beat Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) in a sprint, after the two got away in a late break, with Gilbert’s BMC teammate Greg Van Avermaet taking third.

Gilbert and Wellens jumped away with Etixx-QuickStep’s Laurens de Plus inside the final 50 kilometres, shutting down an earlier attack from Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal). The trio quickly dropped de Gendt, and when Gilbert and Wellens decided to forge on, de Plus was also left behind leaving the two riders to duke it out for the Belgian jersey.

Heading into the final kilometre, Gilbert and Wellens had a comfortable lead of more than a minute over the chasers, which allowed them to ride a very cagey and tactical sprint. Much like a match sprint on the track, they tried to force the other to the front and, at moments, it looked like they might come to a standstill on the drag to the finish line. When Gilbert finally struck out towards the finish line, Wellens had no answer and the elder of the two could throw his arms up in celebration.

There was a delayed start to the day due to a later than expected finish to the women’s race. Around 10 minutes later than planned, the men rolled out under grey skies. There had been some doubts about the participation of Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) after he fell ill earlier in the race but the former champion was on the start line.

After two laps, a strong group including many of the pre-race favourites began to move clear. The full make-up was the group consisted of: Gilbert, Greg Van Avermaet, Dylan Teuns, Loïc Vliegen, De Plus, Nikolas Maes, Pieter Serry, Sean De Bie, Bart De Clercq, De Gendt, Jelle Wallays, Wellens, Jens Keukeleire, Jan Bakelants, Dries Devenyns, Wout van Aert, Aimé De Gendt, Floris De Tier and Gijs Van Hoecke.

That would prove to be the crucial split in the bunch as riders struggled to chase across. As the rain began to fall, the effort showed for De Bie, and he dropped back and eventually retired citing a broken rib for his departure. It wasn’t only De Bie that suffered and with 100km to go, only 70 riders remained out on course. Several riders did try to bridge the gap, but most were unsuccessful with Jurgen Roelandts one of the few to make it. With five laps remaining, however, the leading group began to diminish.

It was at this point that De Gendt decided to brave the horrible conditions alone. He built little more than a 20-second gap before he was joined by Gilbert, Wellens and De Plus and subsequently dropped. As the trio out front pushed on, De Gendt found more company in Bakelants, Jelle Wallays, Van Avermaet, Pieter Serry, Roelandts and Jens Keukeleire.

With 40km to go, Du Plus already looked to be struggling to stay in touch with Wellens and Gilbert. He held on for a little longer but finally had to wave goodbye to the leading group with 24 kilometres to the line. Behind them, De Gendt and Van Avermaet stopped assisting the chasing group, which allowed their teammates to build their advantage.

Wellens did the lion’s share of the work in the final 10 kilometres and, knowing Gilbert’s finishing speed, tried to shake him off on several occasions. It wasn’t to be for Wellens, and he had no answer to Gilbert in the run to the line.

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