Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2021

Mads Pedersen wins Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne

Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) proved quickest in the bunch sprint to win the 2021 edition of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne ahead of Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers).

The bunch sprint was hardly assured as the peloton chased after a leading quintet including Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), only making the catch 1,600 metres from the line

The race is known as the more sprint-friendly of the two Opening Weekend races but Van der Poel looked to disrupted the normal flow of events, going on the attack with a massive 83km still to race, bridging across with Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) to an earlier breakaway.

Qhubeka Assos and Bahrain-Victorious worked to reel them in but it was a tense finale as Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) attacked with Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain-Victorious) inside the final 4km and finally nailed the breakaway back. Despite a counter from Soren Kragh Andersen (DSM) the bunch came together for the sprint and Pedersen prevailed.