Raim wins Great War Remembrance Race

Mihkel Raim (Israel Cycling Academy) won the inaugural edition of the Great War Remembrance Race on Friday, triumphing in a three-up sprint in Ypres after a day of racing across West Flanders. Pawel Bernas (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) led out the final sprint but was powerless when the Estonian champion came off his wheel, while Preben Van Hecke (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) could barely muster a sprint as he settled for third place.

The all-new one-day race was established to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War, and passed by some of the sites of conflict around Ypres, including a trip past the Christmas Truce memorial. The 193km route had echoes of Gent-Wevelgem, as it took in two sectors of cobblestones, three sections of gravel ‘plugstreets’, and the Kemmelberg climb ahead of a 30km run-in to Ypres.

Gent-Wevelgem is also characterised by the wind that blows north of Ypres and, following a rapid opening hour in which a break failed to form, the race was duly blown apart after 60km. When the dust settled there were four groups on the road, and Quick-Step Floors - one of four WorldTour teams at the race alongside BMC Racing, Sunweb, and Lotto Soudal - had three riders in Yves Lampaert, Fabio Jakobsen, and Fernando Gaviria in a front group of 19. BMC and Lotto Soudal also had two each - Michael Schar and Nathan Van Hooydonck for the former, Moreno Hofland and Frederik Frison for the latter - while Sunweb missed the move completely.

Quick-Step, all-conquering in 2018, seemed to hold the upper hand, but Gaviria dropped away from the break, stretching his back, after the three plugstreet sectors with 50km to go. Then on the Kemmelberg - tackled in the opposite direction to Gent-Wevelgem - Jakobsen was dropped, and although he made it back on, the chinks in the armour were obvious.

In the end, Bernas, who had led solo over the Kemmelberg only to crash on the descent, rolled the dice again in a move with Raim and Van Hecke with 10km to go. Thanks to disorganization in the chase group behind, they took their lead all the way to the line. In particular, Lampaert and the BMC riders attacked each other in turn before swinging over, with no one willing to blunt their own chances in committing to the cause.

Bernas accelerated in the final kilometre but couldn’t shake his companions, and Raim then took up the perfect position on the wheel, ready to pounce in the final 100 metres.

“I can’t really describe it because the last two weeks I haven’t felt good on the bike, I haven’t felt myself. I was really struggling in the last races and today also,” Raim said.

“I punctured on first cobbled sector and I was sure it was game over but I kept pushing and somehow I ended up in the front. I was really waiting for finish to just get the race over. I made right decisions and I don’t know how, but I won the race.”

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