Van Hecke wins Belgian road championship

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After a spectacular race around Tervuren near Brussels it was 32-year-old Preben Van Hecke (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) who sprinted to the Belgian tricolor jersey. Together with Jürgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal) he survived from the long breakaway in a Gent-Wevelgem-like move and surprisingly beat the former Belgian champion in a two-man sprint. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) was a close third.

“This week I was thinking about the win. I knew I was going well but winning is something different. I’m a pro for 12 years with some alright results but this win adds colour to my palmarès,” Van Hecke told Sporza. “It’s not undeserved. I always did my work. So did Jürgen. I was up the road with someone who’s faster than me. We were riding very hard in the last three laps. After such a race, 250km in the attack, it’s the rider with just a little more power who wins. It’ll be a big party tonight.”

Greg Van Avermaet unleashed his move on the Horenberg with Boonen, Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto-Jumbo.nl), Björn Leukemans (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and defending champion Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Soudal) marking his move. At the top the gap was down to 15 seconds. The co-operation wasn’t good and several other riders bridged up soon after. Van Avermaet then accelerated three times. On the same false flat section where Devolder attacked one lap earlier he managed to get away. Vanmarcke and Boonen tried to bridge up, without success. The gaps remained the same. At 8km from the finish the two leaders were still 15 seconds ahead of the Boonen-group with Van Avermaet riding in between these two groups. Despite several counter-attacks the situation remained the same until the final kilometre.

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