Laporte takes solo victory at 2022 Binche-Chimay-Binche

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World Road Championships runner-up Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) soloed to victory in the Belgian one-day Binche-Chimay-Binche/Mémorial Frank Vandenbroucke on Tuesday, with Norwegian National Champion Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Pro Cycling) claiming second.

Laporte dropped Tiller some 600 metres from the line after the two clipped away from a small lead break late on the finishing circuit in Binche, with Hugo Page (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) claiming third.

The 198.6km race was marked by Remco Evenepoel’s debut as World Champion.  Former rainbow jersey holder and compatriot Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal), finally sixth in the small chasing group, also took part in his last ever race on home soil alongside the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl rider.

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Evenepoel was briefly very active on the front mid-race, and subsequently tried hard to force a couple of splits.

But he finally sat up roughly 25km from the line before finishing in the company of another imminent retiree, teammate Iljo Keisse.

Meanwhile, the man who finished second behind Evenepoel in Australia, Laporte, was receiving the victory honours after finishing solo on the line.

“It was a very fast, fraught race, and I initially wasn’t in that late move, but finally got across,” Laporte said, “I saw there were a lot of Lotto-Soudal and FDJ riders there, so I decided to attack and I went for it with Rasmus.

“I was a bit nervous he would attack because he wasn’t working with me a lot, but eventually it all worked out OK.”

With victories in Paris-Nice and the Tour de France preceding his success in Australia and now in Belgium, Laporte said “I never imagined I’d end up having such a good season, after the World’s everything is a bonus. But this is the kind of course that suits me very well and I managed to succeed.”

How it unfolded

The 2022 Binche-Chimay-Binche generated almost as much interest for its lineup as the racing itself, as the presence of both newly-crowned World Champion Evenepoel and Gilbert sparked a wave of interest from local fans. But around midday in warm autumn sunshine the peloton finally swung into action for a race widely expected to be decided on its four final, undulating 16km local circuits through Binche.

An early six man break comprised of Torsten Demeyere (Tartoletto-Isorex) and Adam de Vos (Human Powered Health), Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange-Jayco), Karl Patrick (Bingoal-Pauwels Sauches), Evaldas Siskevicuis (Roubaix-Lille Metropole) and Yentl Vandevelde (Minerva Cycling) was sucked in with some 80 kilometres to go. But when the peloton had the half dozen in their sights, the view of the rainbow jersey chasing down a counterattacking group containing Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) briefly had TV commentators rising out their seats.

Evenepoel’s presence shook things up notably, yet the rise in speed had little effect bar ensure a general regrouping. So when the peloton rattled through the cobbled main street that hosted the finish in central Binche, there were still well over 100 riders in the front group of the race.

Evenepoel was very active again on the winding series of country lanes that followed, his presence visibly sparking a few large breakaways of upwards of 10 riders to briefly clip away. Yet the constant surge and drop in pace never allowed a group to gain momentum, and the most successful move proved to contain some 20 riders and containing young Lotto Soudal favourite Arnaud De Lie as well as two teammates, along with strong contingents from Trek-Segafredo and Cofidis as well as Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Two laps and 36 kilometres to go, and the front group edged its advantage up to 30 seconds. Lotto Soudal, unsurprisingly, were making most of the running ahead, while QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux drove away behind, to considerable effect..

Once the break was almost caught, the tension mounted as Victor Campanaerts (Lotto Soudal) blasted across and yet another series of short-lived attacks tried their luck. For the last 45 minutes, the race began to boil down to a series of challenges by the rouleurs to the sprinters teams.

At some 25 kilometres to go, Evenepoel eased up at the back of the pack, exchanging fistbumps with his director as he essentially called it a day, and almost immediately afterwards a lone move by Tony Gallopin (Trek-Segafredo) saw the former Tour de France leader carve out a 20-second lead.

Yet again another group of counter-attackers, containing Gilbert and World Championships runner-up Laporte, attempted to bridge across and defy the sprinters. The 13-rider group, containing no less than three Groupama-FDJ riders, finally reached Gallopin some 14 kilometres from the line. 

Laporte and Tiller then broke away, with the gaps between the chasing group behind rarely reaching 15 seconds. But as the peloton failed to make any inroads on the group of chasers, their margin proved just enough to allow the Frenchman and Norwegian to stay away. Then on the undulating cobbled finale, a brief seated surge by Laporte proved just enough for the Jumbo-Visma racer to create a few seconds gap and claim the win.

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