Bredene-Koksijde Classic: Ackermann wins renamed Handzame Classic

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German champion Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed the newly minted Bredene-Koksijde Classic, winning a chaotic bunch sprint over Team Sky’s Kristoffer Halvorsen. Deceuninck-Quickstep’s Alvaro Hodeg, the defending champion, was third.

The former Handzame Classic was the second win of the season for Ackerman after the Clasica Almeria, and a bit of revenge for a close second place in Nokere Koerse on Wednesday behind Sunweb’s Cees Bol.

“I think we showed already that we were the strongest team on Wednesday, and I had to give something back to the team. That’s what I wanted to do today, and finally we did it, ” Ackermann said.

“It was a headwind in the sprint, and before it was very hectic. I lost a lot of times my lead-out man, but I always came back. I had this final in a good mind because two years ago it was my first race where I was in the top five, and today I said this is my final, I want to win.”

Hodeg was disappointed not to defend his title but said that Ackermann was the strongest. He finished the race on a teammate’s bike after a mechanical with 10km to go.

“I almost crashed with 10km to go, and we lost Fabio Jakobsen. I tried to change my bike, but it was full gas and I needed to do the sprint on another bike. It’s no excuse - Pascal was fastest,” Hodeg said.

“We needed to go really full the last 10kms, I tried to change my bike but it was impossible. The team did an incredible job to put me in the first position for the last corner, but it was a little early because the sprint was into a headwind.”

Dimitri Peyskens (Team Wallonie-Bruxelles), Justin Timmermans (Team Roompot-Charles), Andrea Vendrame (Team Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec), Julian Morice (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels), and Mathias Norsgaard Jorgensen (Riwal Readynez) made up the day’s breakaway, with the U23 Danish time trial champion Norsgaard using his skills to stay clear when the rest were caught with 16.7km to go.

Just as the breakaway was coming back, however, there was a slowing in the peloton and a touch of wheels that caused a number of riders to crash, including Deceuninck-Quickstep’s sprinter Fabio Jakobsen.

His teammate and defending champion Hodeg suffered a mechanical in the melee and had to wait to swap bikes with Pieter Serry, with the Deceuninck team car held up behind. Hodeg made his way back into the peloton with 7km to go on his teammate’s bike, while Remco Evenepoel resumed charge of pace-setting.

Another crash with 2.2km to go took out another half dozen riders, including Cofidis sprinter Hugo Hofstetter, but up front, CCC Team took control for Jakub Mareczko as Deceuninck tried to regroup. With 1km to go, on a wide-open flat roadway, Iljo Keisse led his teammate Hodeg into the final corner, dropping him off out of the turn.

But the chase back from his mechanical cost the Colombian, and Ackermann proved to be the strongest. Halvorsen showed his class, taking the runner-up slot for the second season in a row.

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