Stuyven wins Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne

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Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) put in a performance straight out of the Fabian Cancellara playbook, with a commanding win in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Belgian rider, who crashed during Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, marked several key moves, including an attack on the Kwaremont from Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), before launching his own bid for glory inside the final 30 kilometres.

Despite a frantic chase from the peloton, Stuyven never looked in trouble, holding a 30- to 40-second lead throughout the closing stages. Even a testing headwind could not slow the Trek-Segafredo rider.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the bunch sprint for third ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) but the day belonged to Stuyven and his Trek-Segafredo team, with Niccolo Bonifazio and Edward Theuns also finishing inside the top ten. Boy van Poppel also played his part. As well as helping to form the early break the Dutch rider kept the move alive once Stuyven and several others bridged across.

On a day that saw both Katusha and Etixx-QuickStep search for revenge after disappointing outings in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, it was Trek’s precise and clinical game-plan that paid off, much to the delight of the management and Fabian Cancellara, who will lead the team during the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix later this spring.

Stuyven was present in each major split inside the final 70 kilometres and when a move that contained Tom Boonen, Greg Van Avermaet, Luke Rowe and the Trek rider appeared to be losing steam, Stuyven attacked with force and gusto.

How it unfolded

The riders at the start of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne were trying to protect themselves against the cold wind at the start next to the hippodrome in sunny Kuurne. David Boucher (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) didn’t hide from the wind and attacked straight from the start. Ten riders joined the former French – now Belgian – rider. They were his teammate Gerry Druyts (Crelan-Vastgoedservice), the duo Berden de Vries and Sjoerd van Ginneken (Roompot-Oranje),Kevin Van Melsen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Yanto Barker (ONE), Sebastien Turgot (AG2R), Mirko Trosino (Southeast), Boy van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo), Jaap de Man (Team3M) and Romain Cardis (Direct Energie). The group collected a maximum lead of nine minutes in the headwind section, long before the hilly zone.

After the turning point near Ninove, the pace picked up thanks to a tailwind and at the feed zone fast men Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) abandoned the race.

A crash from Michael Delage (FDJ) caused a split in the peloton, putting 50 riders at a distance. For most of them it was game over as the pace remained high. Despite the high speed the only notable action happened on the Oude Kwaremont climb as World Champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) accelerated, with Stuyven marking his move.

The rest of the peloton didn’t allow the duo to gain much distance but no more than 30 riders survived the cut in the peloton. The pace dropped a little towards the Kluisberg and some fast men were able to come back. There were still 78 windy kilometres and three more climbs left to cover. Few riders in this peloton fancied to work on a ten-kilometre-long, straightforward section towards the cobbles of the Varent. As a result a second peloton managed to bridge back up.

The Lotto-Soudal team took the initiative when hitting the last three climbs of the day, between kilometres 62 and 50 in a crosswinds section. They received support from IAM Cycling and created echelons. Caleb Ewan and Kristoff were caught behind but managed to bounce back solo.

On Nokereberg, the last climb of the day, Julien Vermote (Etixx-QuickStep) tried hard to get away. He received the company of Stuyven, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Sagan, Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal), Dries Devenyns (IAM) and Salvatore Puccio (Sky).

The group quickly caught up with most riders from the lead group, except Trosino, but didn’t get much of a bonus. When riding through Waregem there was only one leader left, riding a handful of seconds ahead of an uncontrolled peloton.

A few new accelerations followed with Stuyven tearing the peloton apart. Trosino was caught at 39 kilometres from the finish. At that point the peloton was split into several groups, all battling the crosswinds. Ewan, Bouhanni and Debusschere were among the riders at the back of the race. Still, there was no organization in front with new attacks as a result.

The winning move is made

Eventually a large group rode away, building a 40-second lead on the peloton. The group featured former leaders Trosino and De Vries, Saturday’s winner Van Avermaet, Boonen and Vermote for Etixx-QuickStep, Stuyven, Boy van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo), Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Soudal), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-GreenEdge), Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), Olivier Naesen (IAM), Luke Rowe (Sky), Tom Stamsnijder (Giant-Alpecin), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) and Twan Castelijns (LottoNL-Jumbo).

In the peloton, Stig Broeckx (Lotto-Soudal) suddenly found himself on the ground after being hit by a medical motorbike. The rider was immediately taken to hospital for scans.

Back in the race, Lotto-Soudal were still working hard in the peloton to bring the leaders back. They received support from the Katusha team, while the co-operation in front wasn’t great with Boonen often neutralizing the attacks. Just before hitting the final lap Stuyven blasted away.

The Belgian rider quickly established a lead of 16 seconds on the first group, while the peloton was 34 seconds back on Stuyven.

When blasting through the streets of Kortrijk with 10 kilometres to go Stuyven had a lead of half a minute on a small first group with Boonen, Vermote, Rowe, Ligthart, Naesen and Van Avermaet. The peloton was 43 seconds down on Stuyven and despite a late rally, and Stuyven almost crashing on a left hand corner, the Belgian had enough to take the win. 

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