GP Jean-Pierre Monseré: Dylan Groenewegen blasts through final metres and denies breakaway for victory

Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) broke the hearts of the late breakaway group at the GP Jean-Pierre Monseré, sweeping past the seven-man group in the dying metres of the 202.5km race to take his third win of 2026.

The Dutchman's team had worked hard to bring back the break, which went clear first with two riders at 39km to go and then with five more bridging across 17km later.

The break battled on almost all the way to the line, even launching the closing sprint in Roeselare, with Simon Dehairs (Alpecin-Premier Tech) looking to hold off Kamil Małecki (Pinarello-Q36.5) in the dash for the line.

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However, the peloton finally made the catch just as the sprint was launched, swamping the breakaway survivors. Only Groenewegen could outpace them in the final burst to the line, though, beating Dehairs and Małecki to the victory.

"It was pretty hectic, but we managed to stay calm. We chose the right side of the road, and I got a perfect lead-out," Groenewegen said after the race, according to WielerFlits.

"I arrived just in time to take the win. I'm very happy, but even more so with how we rode today."

Attacks flew from the start of the semi-Classic between Ichtegem and Roeselare. There'd be no breakaway, however, for the first half of the race, which was run at a scintillating average speed of over 47kph.

A move finally did go clear with just over 60km to go, though, with David Dekker (Beat CC p/b Saxo), Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello-Q36.5), Jan Maas (Cofidis), and Samuel Leroux (TotalEnergies) among the nine men of the breakaway.

Sprint squads, including Soudal-QuickStep and Unibet Rose Rockets, led the charge behind, while the break wouldn't last much longer. The group was brought back with 47km left to race.

Counter-attacks flew shortly afterwards, including a move from Warre Vangheluwe (Soudal-QuickStep), but nothing else went clear until 39km to go.

At that point, Małecki and Sente Sentjens (Alpecin-Premier Tech) managed to break free of the peloton, pushing on as the sprinter's teams continued to control the race.

The pair built a 30-second lead, holding their advantage over the final ascent of the small Gitsberg (500m at 2%) climb with 22km to go. They'd be joined by five riders attacking from the peloton soon afterwards.

At 19km to go, the group of Dehairs, Zak Eržen (Bahrain Victorious), Stan Van Tricht (Soudal-QuickStep), Pascal Ackermann, Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla) made it across to leave seven out front.

Racing across the finish line for the fourth time out of five on Sunday afternoon, the leaders held on to a slim gap of just over 10 seconds, though the advantage would grow to 20 as they charged into the final 10km.

The seven leaders continued to cling to an ever-diminishing lead on the run into Roeselare while Lotto-Intermarché and Unibet Rose Rockets led the chase behind.

At 3km to go, the gap lay at just 10 seconds, though that didn't stop Iúri Leitão (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) from putting his track power to use by bursting clear to go on the attack. The Portuguese rider's move came to nothing, though it did draw the peloton five seconds closer to the break.

Just four seconds separated the two groups as they raced into the final kilometre as the leaders strained to hang on, with Sentjens leaving it all out there for Dehairs. They launched the sprint still in the lead, but it wasn't to be, with the peloton just making the catch in the dying metres.

Dehairs looked to be the quickest finisher, but his closing pace was no match for the fresh Groenewegen, and so the Dutchman swept past to secure his third win of the season at the death.

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