Eenkhoorn wins Heylen Vastgoed Heistse Pijl

Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo-Visma) won Heylen Vastgoed Heistse Pijl in a three-man sprint Saturday, narrowly getting the better of Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in the finishing sprint, with Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Fenix) finishing third. 

Having placed fifth overall at the recent Tour de Wallonie, this is Eenkhoorn’s first win of the season, and his first since a stage at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali last September.  

Lampaert broke free from the peloton with about 31km left to ride in the 193km contest, with some riders initially latching onto his wheel, before finding the pace too much to handle. 

Aware of the danger such a strong rouleur posed, Eenkhoorn set off in pursuit, and made the catch 27.2km from the finish. Rickaert joined the duo moments later, and the trio rode well to make it to the finish together.

Considering the flat parcours and the race’s history of large sprint finishes, one might have expected that the Jumbo-Visma and Deceuninck-QuickStep riders competing for victory at the line would have been there for respective sprinters, Dylan Groenewegen and Fabio Jakobsen, rather than Eenkhoorn and Lampaert. Given the lingering bad blood between the two following the crash at the Tour of Poland last year, this sprint would have had some edge to it. 

But, despite gaining his first win since his long ban recently at the Tour de Wallonie, Groenewegen did not have the legs that saw him win the race back in 2016, and was distanced earlier in the day, while Jakobsen abandoned the race altogether. 

With Jakobsen out, Deceuninck-QuickStep opted for an attacking strategy and Lampaert putting everything into his bid for glory, committing to the three-man group he found himself a part of. The strategy did not pay off, however, as Eenkhoorn proved himself much stronger in the sprint to win by a bike length. 

Rickaert found himself in the least favourable position at the front of the three-man group as they headed onto the final kilometre, and the other two refused to take a turn when he swung over. Eenkhoorn and Lampaert burst from behind his wheel in the sprint, with Eenkhoorn proving himself the quickest. 

Earlier in the race, a five-man group got up the road, consisting of: Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Fenix), Sean Flynn (SEG Racing Academy), Valentin Tabellion (Xelliss-Roubaix Lille Metropole), Thomas Mein (Canyon dhb SunGod) and Eirik Lunder (Team Coop).

Of the five, Riesebeek and Flynn proved to be strongest. They went clear from the rest, and were only caught by a Deceuninck-QuickStep-led peloton with just over 30km left to ride, just before Lampaert made his race-defining attack.