Devolder solos to third Belgian road race title

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Outsider Stijn Devolder (Radioshack-Leopard) grabbed his third title at the Belgian national championships in La Roche-en-Ardenne on Sunday afternoon. After sixteen laps on a hilly course the 33 year-old clearly outmatched his rivals, arriving solo one minute ahead of Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) and Bakelants (Radioshack-Leopard). When crossing the line Devolder paid tribute to his deceased friend Wouter Weylandt.

Devolder won his first title in Ronse 2007 and his second in Leuven 2010. Pre-race favourites Gianni Meersman (Lotto-Belisol) and world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC) didn't have anything left when Devolder powered away at 25km from the finish. Defending champion Tom Boonen tried his luck in an early move but didn't feature when the finale got underway.

Already during the Spring Classics it was clear Devolder had the national championships on his mind. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/devolder-concludes-spring-classics-with-fun-race-at-brabantse-pijl Back then he already realized that he had to ride smart in order to win as his team lacked the numbers to control the race.

"I had to be smart but also time my move well," Devolder said. "This is great. I was well prepared for this race. I was hiding well during the last few races because I didn't want to become a favourite. I can't believe that I'm Belgian champion." To his own surprise Devolder wasn't featured in the Radioshack-Leopard selection for the Tour de France last week. "This isn't an answer to that. I just wanted to win today. It's an important day for me."

Also during the race Devolder had been hiding well. When Tom Boonen went up the road with teammates Pieter Serry and Dries Devenyns, along with Bart Declercq (Lotto-Belisol), during the third of sixteen laps it was Vacansoleil-DCM and Crelan-Euphony who kept their move at around two minutes. Strong moves from men like Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) and Gilbert at 80km from the finish eventually neutralized the breakaway move at five laps from the finish.

Twenty kilometres later a group of 18 riders sneaked away in three steps. The group eventually featured Van Keirsbulck, Serge Pauwels and Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Gilbert and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), De Gendt and Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM), Devolder and Bakelants (Radioshack-Leopard), Gaetan Bille and Gert Dockx (Lotto-Belisol), Maxime Vantomme (Crelan-Euphony), Thomas Degand (Accent Jobs-Wanty), Laurens Devreese (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Sep Vanmarcke (Blanco), Kevin Seeldrayers (Astana) and cyclo-cross rider Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Napoleon Games). Jurgen Roelandts tried to get back on his own but he fell short. At 50km from the finish the rest of the peloton was out of contention too.

Bakelants, De Gendt and Seeldrayers made Omega Pharma-Quickstep work hard with a new attack, but with two laps to go the 18 riders were back together. The attack from Bille didn't create much damage but at 25 kilometres from the finish Devolder blasted away on the big ring. He went up and over Bille and in no time he collected a gap of half a minute.

In the background Omega Pharma-Quickstep ran out of numbers as Pauwels and Van Keirsbulck didn't have enough energy left in their tank to keep Devolder under control. Three kilometres later the two Omega Pharma-Quickstep boys were gone and Devolder had 50s. Several attacks followed but no organized chase. With one lap to go the gap was up to 1:06 on eleven chasers. More attacks followed with all riders on their limit but clearly the focus was on second place. Meersman got the better from Bakelants, Leukemans, Vanmarcke, Van Avermaet, Gilbert and Van den Broeck.

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