Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) sprinted to victory on the flat run-in to Lens in northern France to win the inaugural Classique Dunkerque-Grand Prix des Hauts de France.
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) pushed ahead of Alberto Dainese (Tudor Pro Cycling) to secure second place in the bunch charge just behind Ackermann, while Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) was left in fourth place.
For the 31-year-old Ackermann, it was his first victory in Israel-Premier Tech colours, since joining the squad last season when he had a trio of podiums at the Tour de France as his top results. It had been two years since his last victory, winning a stage at the Tour of Austria in 2023.
"Amazing race by the team today. Yesterday, when I saw the start list, I was like 'Why shouldn't I be able to win today?'" Ackermann told organisers at the finish about going for his first win in two years, suffering from a recent illness and a recovery from a broken collarbone.
"Today, the team was riding so strong from the front. If the team is riding like this, I should be the strongest rider. I felt super good on the climbs also. The team gave me all the trust, especially after all the injuries the past weeks, months. I am really happy to finish it off this way."
The first edition of the Classique Dunkerque / Grand Prix des Hauts de France began in the coastal town of Dunkirk in northern France and headed south for a hilly finishing loop to cover Mont des Rocollets and Notre Dame de Lorette twice each before a flat finish in Lens.
Straightaway from the start in Dunkerque, a small group of riders formed the breakaway of the day, comprised of a trio of Belgian riders – Abram Stockman (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Luca De Meester (Wagner Bazin WB), Kenny Molly (Van Rysel Roubaix) – and a Frenchman, Similien Hamon (CIC-U-Nantes).
Riders pass under a bright decorative display early in the race (Image credit: Getty Images)
Across the opening 50km on mainly flat roads to the south, the quartet stretched their lead to just over 7 minutes once across the forest of five classified climbs on the day, the first one at Estrée-Blanche with 123.5km to go.
A block of 47 more flat kilometres allowed the group the freedom to snatch up intermediate sprint points, but the peloton wiped away half of their time advantage.
The crest of the longest climb, 2.9km Mont des Recollets at 3.8%, signalled the final 46km of racing and a series of three more climbs approaching. The advantage to the breakaway of four riders was down to 25 seconds, the pace in the peloton dictated by Ineos Grenadiers and Picnic-PostNL, two of the 11 WorldTeams in the field.
Once on the steep banks of Notre Dame de Lorette, 1.1km at 7.6%, for the second of two passes, Stockman accelerated away from his companions on a solo effort, but it didn't last long as work by WorldTour squads Intermarché-Wanty and Cofidis came to the front before the final intermediate sprint in Vimy, with 20km to go.
Heavy rain for the next 5km slowed the pace enough to allow a split in the peloton to fade and allowed all the sprint teams to reposition for the run-in to Lens.
In the final 10km, Soudal-QuickStep joined Cofidis at the front on the wide roads into the metropolitan area. On a small incline with 7km to go, Axel Huens (Unibet Tietema Rockets) attacked at the front, but Cofidis reacted and strung out the peloton. A small curb on the twisting roads caused a domino effect, with a handful of riders going down.
Cofidis continued at the front, the rain well behind them, with an obstacle course of more road furniture scattered on the dry roads, and the front group dwindled to a small selection of about 40 riders.
Israel-Premier Tech set up the sprint train for Pascal Ackermann in the final kilometre, with the German finding an opening on the right side to take the victory.
The bunch dash for the finish line (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).
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