Sinkeldam wins Binche-Chimay-Binche

Ramon Sinkeldam (Giant-Alpecin) made a surprise attack with roughly 800 metres to go, catching the main field off guard ahead of the bunch sprint, to take the victory at Binche-Chimay-Binche on Tuesday. He held off a chase from Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Soudal), who ended up in second place ahead of the bunch sprint won by Tom Van Asbroeck (LottoNL-Jumbo) for third.

"We were well represented in the group in front in the finale, and the team did a great job to get me in a good position," Sinkeldam said. "Roy brought me into a good position on the final climb, and we didn't race full gas on the climb so I was able to make a strong attack and eventually that was enough to win.

"I was actually not sure if I was racing for the win or if there was someone in front, and I didn't know what was happening behind me on the hard cobblestones. So it was exciting until the end.

"I didn’t expect to win today, because I didn't feel great during the race, so it's extra special to add this victory to my palmarès at the end of the season."

The 2015 Binche-Chimay-Binche, also known as Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke, offered the field a semi-classic held on a 195km course through Wallonia, Belgium.

Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) was the solo leader of the race with 10km to go, and it looked as though he might be able to hang on for the win. He broke away from a lead group of eight riders that also included his teammate Nikolas Maes, Jurgen Roelandts and Ligthart (Lotto-Soudal) and Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff-Saxo). He held a gap of roughly 45 seconds with 30km to go, but that advantage was drastically reduced as the race approached the finish.

The peloton, hungry for a small bunch sprint was only a few seconds behind both Terpstra and the chase group, with five kilometres to go, and it was clear that the breakaway riders' efforts were all for not.

Ligthart put in a big dig to catch Terpstra, and counter attacks then came from Roelandts and Maes. Roelandts made one last attack in a time-trial move to the finish line, however, they were all caught with roughly two kilometres to go.

As the field hit the cobbles, teams organised their riders in pursuit of a bunch sprint victory. It was a small field and attacks continued on the road to the finish. An attack from Sinkeldam came out of the bunch with about 800 metres to go, and he held off the chasing Ligthart, along the rest of the field, to take the win.

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