Tour of Belgium: Theuns wins stage 1

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Edward Theuns finally claimed his first victory of his first season in the WorldTour with Trek-Segafredo, taking out the bunch sprint in Knokke-Heist over Dan McLay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Kenny De Haes (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).

The 25-year-old breathed a sigh of relief after taking the victory.

"For me, it is a very important victory. I was waiting for my first victory this season and I had very high ambitions coming to the Tour of Belgium. I was happy with the prologue yesterday, I did a good time and good values on my SRM, and I was confident that the form is good," Theuns said.

"The team launched me perfectly in the last two kilometers. They did amazing work, Boy (Van Poppel) in particular did such a long pull in the end. I kept pushing him and he rode until he almost fell off his bike. When I was alone I had to wait a little bit before launching my sprint, but I picked the right moment and then when the bump came I knew I had it."

The stage began with a two-man breakaway from Ludwig De Winter (Wallonie-Bruxelles) and Brian Van Goethem (Roompot Oranje Peloton). They were given a lead of 3:30 before being steadily reeled in by the peloton.

The catch came too late for a fight for the Golden Kilometer bonus seconds, and Van Goethem claimed the nine second bonus with De Winter taking six, but it had no impact on the overall classification, and the breakaway was soon caught.

With the peloton all together for the final 18km, it was a nervous run-in to the finish. A big crash in the middle of the peloton came inside the 3km to go but again had no effect on the classifications.

Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) maintained the race lead over Tony Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) by two seconds, with Yves Lampaert (Etixx-Quickstep) moving up into third.

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