Philipsen takes sprint on BinckBank Tour stage 1

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Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates) won the opening stage of the BinckBank Tour, beating Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) to the line in the reduced bunch sprint in Ardooie.

The Belgian prevailed after Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter Pascal Ackermann hit the front a touch too early before fading at the line. The German looked to have the stage victory in the bag before Philipsen, four wheels back, spotted a gap by the barrier to move up and pip his rivals to the line with a perfectly timed effort.

Pedersen took second with a late surge, edging out Ackermann in a photo finish at the line. Only a small group was able to contest the finish having avoided a mass pileup just 4km out.

"It was quite easy, a two guy break so it was quite relaxed," Philipsen said of the first stage. "Everybody knew it would be a bunch sprint today. A lot of team had interest in that, then it was quite hectic in the end while everybody was still fresh. 

"I'm happy I could stay out of trouble and that I could finish it off in the first stage."

Stijn Steels (Deceuninck-QuickStep) injured his wrist in the crash, while Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) rode to the finish on one leg with an injury, assisted by Alpecin-Fenix's Dries De Bondt along the way.

The pan-flat 132.1km stage from Blankenberge on the Flandrian coast south to Ardooie didn't promise non-stop action along the way but came to life in the closing kilometres amidst crashes and battles for time bonuses at the intermediate sprints.

Earlier on, Ludovic Robeet (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles) and Thimo Willems (Sport Vlaanderen Baloise) made the breakaway in the opening kilometres of the stage, a thankless task given the sprint firepower ready to contest the finish.

What followed was, for the most part, a largely quiet day as Bora-Hansgrohe, NTT Pro Cycling, CCC Team and Trek-Segafredo were in control at the front of the peloton with little to race for until the final.

Robeet and Willems enjoyed a maximum advantage of two minutes as they were kept on a tight leash and were eventually caught when Sep Vanmarcke (EF Pro Cycling) put in a testing attack from the peloton with 21km to go.

That move came just ahead of the 'golden kilometre' of three intermediate sprints, each of which offered three bonus seconds to the first man across the line. A handful of general classification contenders grasped their opportunities, as Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) grabbed the bonus at the first one, followed by Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) at the second, and Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) triumphed at the last sprint.

Heading into the finishing circuit, Amund Grøndahl Jansen (Jumbo-Visma) and Adrien Petit (Total Direct Énergie) went on the attack. Their move would only last six kilometres though, as the work of Bora-Hansgrohe, Israel Start-Up Nation and EF Pro Cycling brought them back with 8km to go.

Sean De Bie (Bingoal-Wallonie Bruxelles) jumped away from the peloton 6km from the line, taking 10 seconds on the peloton, which was massively disrupted by a large crash after Guillaume Boivin (Israel Start-Up Nation) touched wheels with a Sunweb rider.

The Canadian came to a stop sitting in the road and, while the men immediately behind him took avoiding action, dozens of riders behind had nowhere to go, meaning a mass pileup at the 4km-to-go mark.

The rest of the peloton carried on, led by Bora-Hansgrohe with their full lead-out for Pascal Ackermann. Deceuninck-QuickStep set up a rival train with Alpecin-Fenix embedded at the front too.

Trek-Segafredo launched first, however, with Ackermann having to come from behind to get some space. The German launched a little too early though, fading on the run to the line and being overhauled by Philipsen, for his second win of the season, and then Pedersen.