Mads Pedersen wins Gent-Wevelgem

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Trek-Segafredo's Mads Pedersen won a scintillating 82nd edition of Gent-Wevelgem, bridging up to Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First), Matteo Trentin (Team CCC) and Florian Sénéchal (Deceuninck-QuickStep) inside the final kilometre, then powering past his three rivals to take the title, the first major Classics success of his career. 

Sénéchal came through to take second, with Trentin third, the four leaders finishing just ahead of a five-strong group that contained pre-race favourites Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix).

"Three guys went from the group and I hoped that Van der Poel and Van Aert would close it," Pedersen said of the frantic finale to a race of non-stop action during its second half.

"I managed to jump across and to stay in the last wheel and do my sprint from there. It was the perfect situation for me."

The Dane always tends to thrive in inclement conditions and he admitted he'd enjoyed the showery weather.

"It was pretty hard with conditions like this. It's raining, it's drying up, it's raining and drying up, so you're getting cold and warm. But I know how to handle it, so it's ok for me. The weather conditions were good for me," he added.

How it unfolded

The race began under the Menin Gate First World War memorial in Ypres, the riders rolling away to tackle a 232km course of two halves, the first flat and exposed, the second featuring three gravel sections and 11 climbs, including three of the iconic cobbled ascent of the Kemmelberg. 

The action began soon after the official start had been given, seven riders jumping away from the bunch to form the break of the day: Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Alexander Konychev (Mitchelton-Scott), Leonardo Basso (Ineos Grenadiers), Julien Morice (B&B Hotels), Kenny Molly (Bingoal), Gilles De Wilde (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and, in a surprising move, Bahrain McLaren sprinter Mark Cavendish. 

These seven riders pushed their advantage out to eight minutes, at which point van Aert's Jumbo-Visma team began to set a faster pace on the front of the bunch. Under the Dutch team's impetus, the break's lead was cut to less than two minutes coming onto the first of the race's 11 climbs, the Scherpenberg.

The whittling process continued over the next four climbs, the last of them the Kemmelberg. Beyond this key ascent, its cobbles slickened by the rain, the peloton split into three pieces, Van Aert pressing hard at the front of the first section. Van der Poel was quick to respond to his rival's acceleration, the Dutchman's effort so strong that only half a dozen riders initially managed to track him, Van Aert not initially among them, although he soon bridged up.

Passing through the three gravel sections set in between climbs five and six, this group continued to close the gap on the break. With 66km remaining, the two groups joined, the junction producing a lead pack of 26 riders. 

Soon after, nine riders clipped away off the front: Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First), Luke Rowe (Ineos Grenadiers), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma), Gianni Vermeersch (Alpecin-Fenix), Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Soudal), plus Pedersen and Trentin. They pushed their lead out to almost a minute as they came onto the second climb of the Kemmelberg.

Here, Van Aert and Van der Poel attacked, their acceleration cutting the break's advantage in half and splitting the chase group. John Degenkolb (Lotto-Soudal), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Bettiol and Sénéchal were with them, with Asgreen's teammate Yves Lampaert the last to join the party.

The final time up the Kemmelberg, Trentin and Küng rode clear of the lead group, while van Aert and van der Poel were the main drivers in the second. After Küng had briefly gone clear on his own, a lead group formed that featured the Swiss, Deceuninck's Asgreen, Lampaert and Sénéchal, Lotto's Degenkolb and Vermeersch, EF's Bettiol and Vanmarcke, Jumbo's Van Aert and Teunissen, plus Teuns, Trentin, Rowe, Pedersen and Van der Poel.

A flurry of attacks on the flat roads running towards the finish left Lampaert, Küng, Bettiol, Van der Poel, Degenkolb, Van Aert, Pedersen, Sénéchal and Trentin in contention for victory at the front. Knowing he would have little chance in a sprint, Küng accelerated with 6.5km, Van Aert reeling him in. Bettiol and Lampaert then tried to jump clear, their effort also nullified. The next to try was Van Aert, his solo effort chased down by Van der Poel. 

The action continued in the same vein. Once one attack was brought back, another went immediately in a frantic few kilometres. But no one managed to break the elastic and with 2.5km left to ride the nine contenders were still grouped together. At this point Küng made one final attempt to escape the specialist sprinters around him. 

Once again the Groupama-FDJ rider was thwarted, and as he was reeled in Trentin, Bettiol and Sénéchal burst clear, Pedersen chasing hard for several hundred metres to join the trio. Bettiol opened up the sprint, but it was Pedersen who charged through to win it, claiming his first one-day success since the World ChampionshipS in Yorkshire last year.