Axel Zingle (Cofidis) was the strongest on the long uphill straightaway sprint to take the victory at the rain-soaked Famenne Ardenne Classic.
Zingle had a clear run at the finish on the left-hand side of the road to take the win ahead of Amaury Capiot (Team Arkéa Samsic) on the right, with Oliver Naesen (AG2R Citroën Team) securing third place in Marche-en-Famenne.
Lotto Soudal had their work cut out for them managing the gap to the day-long breakaway and then setting up Arnaud De Lie for the final sprint. However, De Lie crashed after sliding out on the wet tarmac in the final leaving the team without a contender for the sprint.
Capiot started the sprint early with Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on his wheel, but the Belgian champion was boxed in on the right between Capiot and the roadside fencing.
Capiot continued his sprint but was passed by a charging Zingle on the far left of the road. Naesen launched himself off of Capiot's wheel up the centre of the road to finish third.
How it unfolded
The late-season Famenne Ardenne Classic brought the peloton on a 188km race started and finished in Marche-en-Famenne. The route consisted of one larger opening loop followed by shorter circuits that included the main climb over Côte de Roy, a 3.4km climb at 4.8%, and two smaller climbs in Waha and Marloie, before finishing in Marche-en-Famenne.
Under the pouring rain and cooler conditions, a breakaway of six emerged on the larger loop with Gage Hecht (Human Powered Health), Tim Marsman (Metec-SOLARWATT p/b Mantel), Emil Mielke Vinjebo (Riwal Cycling Team), Mark Stewart (Bolton Equities Black Spoke), Maikel Zijlaard (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) and Matthew Teggart (WiV SunGod).
Teggart and Zijlaard were then distanced leaving the four riders out front as they entered the shorter circuits. Hecht also fell off pace on a long uphill stretch of tarmac leaving Stewart, Vinjebo and Marsman to fend off the chasing peloton.
Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux and Lotto Soudal did the bulk of the chasing to hold the gap at 2:23 inside 50km and reduced to 1:30 inside 40km.
Marsman sat up with 30km to go as Alpecin-Deceuninck joined Lotto Soudal in the chase. They closed in on the breakaway but Stewart and Vinjebo pushed on, powering over the long uphill stretch on the circuit with 25 seconds in hand.
The field made the catch with one short circuit to go, approximately 22km remaining, opening the race up to new attacks on the series of final ascents that caused some separations among the bunch.
Lotto Soudal kept a tight grip on the front of the field, holding the peloton together until Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) jumped out of the field just ahead of the Côte de Roy.
A small group bridged across to Turgis with Omer Goldstein (Israel-Premier Tech) counter attacking, but Lotto Soudal pulled them all back in. Toms Skujiņš (Trek-Segafredo) was the next to go, and made several attempts, but he too was reeled back into a reduced group that split off the front of the field.
Greg van Avermaet (AG2R Citroën) had an untimely flat tire inside 10km as attacks continued at the front.
Lotto Soudal organised a lead-out for De Lie as it a reduced field entered the final 6km. Turgis cleared the field at 5.4km out with Stan Dewulf (AG2R Citroën) and Goldstein tried to bridge across. Goldstein connected with Turgis with 4km to go, but the attacks continued behind, with the race coming back together on the descent into the in the last two kilometres.
The reduced field barrelled through the narrow town centre led by Lotto Soudal, however, the team lost De Lie who slide out on the wet tarmac in the final. On the uphill drag to the finish it was Zingle who emerged as the day's winner.
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