Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X) claimed a second career victory at Dwars door Het Hageland, finishing from a group of three after Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceunick) marked his return to competition with an aggressive but ill-fortuned display.
Stan Van Tricht (Soudal-QuickStep) finished runner-up, with Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny) claiming the final spot on the podium as the trio hit the punchy final Citadel climb together.
Van der Poel had opened the race, a 177km affair with over 40km of gravel and cobbles, with more than 100km still to run, and made it alongside Tiller into the key selection on the penultimate ascent of the Citadel (330m at 7.7%), which that closed the finishing circuits around Diest.
Up front, 2021 champion Tiller found himself in an eight-man leading group, although Uno-X's tactical options were reduced when Soren Waerenskjold became the latest rider to puncture on the dry and dusty gravel.
Instead, it was Soudal-QuickStep who had the numerical advantage, with Yves Lampaert and Casper Pedersen alongside Van Tricht, while Vermeersch, Loic Vliegen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) and Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) were the other members of the lead group.
Van der Poel fought furiously to get himself back into the chase group for the 4km gravel sector on the final lap, and his teammates Timo Kielich and Gianni Vermeersch buried themselves to reduced the arrears to just 10 seconds heading into the final 5km.
On the Grasbos climb (500 metres at 5.8%), Florian Vermeersch accelerated to draw Tiller and Van Tricht as a trio into the finale and they rode, despite Tiller's frustrations with the sandbagging Van Tricht, to the foot of the Citadel as the Van der Poel group exploded and lost all hope behind.
Tiller took charge and stormed up the climb, with Van Tricht mounting a strong response but unable to get on terms with Tiller on the very short finishing straight.
"I had good legs and the team did a really good job, keeping me in the front all the time," said Tiller.
"Mathieu punctured - that was a bit sad. Of course, when he's not there it's easier. We were a bit lucky when he punctured. But I'm really happy to finish this off for the team."
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
-
The gravelliest UCI Gravel World Championships of them all – A detailed look at the 'perfect storm' of terrain that riders will face this October in Western Australia
Liège-Bastogne-Liège style climbs in a course carved out from the thousands of kilometres of pristine gravel roads on offer -
'AI is going to change women's performance research from the bottom up' - Kristen Faulkner inputs 4,400 hours of personal training history and gains 'actionable' output
Olympic Champion attributes data analysis for winning three gold medals across track and road disciplines at this year's Pan American Championships -
'An unprecedented commitment' - Remco Evenepoel signs with Specialized for life
Olympic Champion will never race on a bike from any other brand
