Walscheid wins GP de Denain

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Max Walscheid (Cofidis) won the Grand Prix de Denain - Porte du Hainaut from a bunch sprint on Thursday. He held off Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix) at the line, who took second, followed by Adrien Petit (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) in third.

It was the second podium in two days for the German, who was runner-up at Nokere Koerse on Wednesday.

The race looked like it would come down to a sprint among five breakaway riders, with Ineos Grenadiers having three representatives - Magnus Sheffield, Jhonatan Narváez and Ben Turner - alongside Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and Damien Touzé (AG2R Citroën). The break had been on the attack for the final 35 kilometres of the 200.3km race, but were caught in the final kilometre to set up Walscheid's victory.

"I'm incredibly happy we just did the best performance possible and I'm so happy to finish it off. We took already control in the beginning and also Piet Allegaert did a good lead out for me, he brought me to the last 500 metres and then it was just a bloc to the line," Walscheid said.

"I knew it was a pretty difficult situation and I was a little bit scared we would not catch them back. I have to say thank you to Wanty who also did an incredible team job and were super committed and luckily they brought it back."

In the race to stay in the WorldTour, Cofidis have been among the winners to avoid relegation, taking the Etoile de Besseges with Benjamin Thomas and two stages and a victory in Tour de la Provence. Today's win earned them 200 more UCI points.

"I'm also super happy for our team, we scored a lot of points. My teammates already collected a few victories so I think we can keep this ball rolling."