Wout van Aert wins Belgian men's road title

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Wout van Aert captured the Belgian road title for the first time in his career on Sunday afternoon. He took victory in a three-man sprint from Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep). It was his first race since winning the Amstel Gold Race on April 18 and his appendix operation halfway through May.

"It's one of the most beautiful jerseys in the peloton. Obviously I wanted to win it one day. I want to dedicate this victory to my buddy Small who lost the battle against bone cancer last month. A lot of things happened recently but it doesn't mean much if something like that happens. I had to think a lot about him the past few weeks. I had to fight to come here and race. I want to thank him for giving me that power today," Van Aert said.

Van Aert appeared in front during the penultimate of four local laps of 16km. The small lead group with Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was caught back and the peloton headed to the 1km long Holstraat climb. Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal) anticipated the climb but Edward Theuns neutralized his effort and brought the peloton back.

At the top of the climb with 24km to go, the same spot where Lotte Kopecky attacked in the women's race, Van Aert blasted away with Remco Evenepoel on his wheel. Men like Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka Assos) and Tiesj Benoot (Team DSM) failed to close the gap straight away in a combined effort but Theuns managed to bridge up solo at 22km from the finish. Alpecin-Fenix was unable to control the strong lead group and the three would battle for the victory. Van Aert marked two attempts from Evenepoel to sneak away and in the sprint he kept Theuns in check.

"It was a difficult finale. Edward Theuns bridged up with me but didn't want to co-operate. I wanted to bank on my sprint but I was carrying the race with Remco Evenepoel. It seems like I'm always doing close sprints. I'm glad the photo finish was clear," Van Aert laughed.

"It sounds ridiculous after a victory but there's certainly room for improvement. Today I had to undergo the race and bide my time. I rode several championships where it didn't work out well. Today I managed to get into the right breakaway move. Due to circumstances this is a very pleasing victory. The Tour de France is very different to this race but I had doubts and now I can head to the Tour with confidence and show the tricolor jersey."

Third-placed Evenepoel showed disappointment although he knew he wouldn't stand a chance in the sprint.

"If I wanted to win I had to reach the finish alone. Those two are two real classics specialists so on a short climb I'm not explosive enough to drop them. The level at the Belgian championships is so high and on a course like this one it's even harder for me. Podium in the ITT and today is nice but tomorrow nobody remembers who finished on the podium," Evenepoel said.

Runner-up Theuns skipped most of the work in the lead group but still he was unable to mark the speed and power of Van Aert in the sprint.

"It was the chance of my life to win the Belgian title. I'm super disappointed. It's been a few difficult weeks for me. I'm riding so strong and still the team doubts whether to take me to the Tour or not. I think I showed what I can do by closing the gap on these two giants on my own. I knew it would be difficult but I believed that I would be able to beat Van Aert.

"I hoped to come out of his wheel but I quickly came next to him. I didn't dare to shift up one more time. I banked on my jump because I know he's had some problems there," Theuns laughed. "Due to corona the team wasn't allowed to take the start in the races that suit me the best, Dwars door Vlaanderen and Gent-Wevelgem, so I wasn't able to show my form as much as I wanted," Theun told Sporza.

Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) started the sprint from far out in the peloton but the trio was too far away to grab a second title. Eventually it was Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) who won the sprint in the peloton ahead of Milan Menten (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauces-WB) and Merlier.

How it unfolded

The peloton rolled out of Waregem at noon for 221 kilometres of mostly flat racing, with three loops which each had to be covered four times. Nobody got away during a first hour of flat out racing with an average of 48.8km/h.

A small lead group put Alpecin-Fenix under pressure in the mid-part of the race. The four leaders were Kenny Molly (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauzen WB), team-mates Brent Van Moer and Tosh Van der Sande from Lotto-Soudal and Mauri Vansevenant (Deceuninck - Quick-Step). The four leaders collected a maximum bonus of six minutes on the peloton after 100km of racing.

The large Alpecin-Fenix team received some support from the Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise team and slowly the gap came back down, still averaging 46km/h during the first three hours of racing. The pace in the peloton increased even more on the four final local laps with attacks constantly being fired around by big guns like Campenaerts, Benoot and Theuns.

Next up was Yves Lampaert who was joined by defending champion Dries De Bondt. The duo bridged up to the four leaders but never gained more than a minute on the peloton where Alpecin-Fenix kept working.

During the penultimate lap, at 28km from the finish, everything was back together when riding over the cobbles of the Herlegemstraat and approaching the Holstraat climb where the race would be decided.