De Buyst wins Binche-Chimay-Binche

Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Soudal) claimed Tuesday's Binche-Chimay-Binche, out-sprinting Quick-Step Floors' Matteo Trentin and Wanty-Groupe Gobert's Tom Devriendt after a long day off the front with a strong breakaway group.

Quick-Step seemed to have the heavy numbers advantage with three riders in the eight-man lead group that rolled into the finale to contest the win, but De Buyst played the final kilometre to perfection.

Trentin put in a powerful attack as the group hit the flamme rouge, dropping most of his fellow escapees, but De Buyst and Devriendt managed to stay on his wheel. The trio pulled onto the finishing straight together to battle for the victory in a three-man sprint, and De Buyst won convincingly.

An aggressive start saw big splits in the peloton in the early goings. The day's decisive breakaway took shape with a more cohesive peloton forming behind shortly after the midway point of the 195.2km race.

With around 80 kilometres to go, De Buyst, Trentin, Devriendt, Remi Cavagna and Petr Vakoc (Quick-Step Floors), Twan Castelijns and Amund Grondahl Jansen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Jerome Mainard (Armee de Terre), Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Rob Ruijgh (Tarteletto - Isorex) comprised the 10-rider selection at the head of the race, with the pack around a minute and a half behind.

With so much firepower off the front, the peloton struggled to close down the advantage of the breakaway, even as Castelijns and Ruijgh lost touch with their fellow escapees. The gap held relatively study, at or around a minute, for the next hour.

As the leaders continued to hold off the chase, an eight-rider group jumped clear of the pack some 30 kilometres from the finish in an attempt to bridge, but the effort would prove futile. With the Quick-Step providing much of the pace in the main break, the lead group stayed clear to the finale – but it was Lotto Soudal's lone representative in the move that came away with the victory.

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