Demare wins Brussels Cycling Classic

Image 1 of 15

Arnaud Démare (FDJ) won the bunch sprint to take the win at Saturday's Brussels Cycling Classic, finishing ahead of Marko Kump (UAE Team Emirates) and André Greipel (Lotto Soudal).

The riders faced 13 climbs along the way, but the many sprinters in the race gave an indication of the expected finish. A group of five riders quickly formed and got away: Dimitri Peyskens (WB Verandaclassic Aqua Protect), Brian Van Goethem (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Patryk Stosz (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Sander Cordeel (Verandas Willems - Crelan) and Stepan Kurianov (Gazprom-Rusvelo). They were held to a gap of not more than five minutes.

The lead was soon at only the minute mark, with big name riders looking to make the move up. A group of 15 formed when nine rider successfully bridged up: Matthias Brändle (Trek-Segafredo), Tiesj Benoot, Sean De Bie (Lotto-Soudal), Pim Ligthart, Jesper Asselman (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Geoffrey Soupe (Cofidis), Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Nans Peters (AG2R), Olivier Le Gac (FDJ) and Truls Korsaeth (Astana).

Both the group and the gap got smaller as the race continued, and then exploded as the finish line came closer. Brändle attacked solo with eight kilometres to go. The Austrian pulled away, but the sprinters were determined to take the stage and he was caught again with less than 2 km to go.

André Greipel made a late surge but could not quite catch Démare, who claimed his ninth season victory.

Full Results