Florian Sénéchal wins Primus Classic

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Florian Sénéchal (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won the Primus Classic in a five-up sprint in Haacht, beating Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal) and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segfredo) to the line after his teammate Mikkel Honoré led out the sprint.

“We won as a team. The whole team worked very well and I wouldn’t have won without them today,” said Sénéchal. “Mikkel Honoré did a super job in the final, and I was able to think 100% about the sprint.”

As is so often the case in one-day races in this corner of the world, the story of the race was dictated by Deceuninck-QuickStep’s numerical superiority, with the men in blue present on the front at every key juncture.

The winning move had its genesis in Julian Alaphilippe’s rasping acceleration on the final cobbled climb of Bekestraat with 35km to go. This was the Frenchman’s final outing on the rainbow jersey before he puts his world title on the line next weekend, and his effervescent display suggested he was determined to mark the occasion in style.

Alaphilippe had already been prominent in marking a move by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) following the Moskesstraat. If the race was fraying at the seams at that point, it was ripped apart on the Bekestraat, where Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Van der Poel and Van Der Sande could match Alaphilippe’s initial surge, with seven more riders bridging across over the top.

When the dust settled, there were five Deceuninck-QuickStep riders in a move of eleven riders, with Alaphilippe, Ballerini, Sénéchal, Honoré and Zdenek Stybar facing Van der Poel, Stuyven, Van der Sande, Simon Clarke (Qhubeka-NextHash and Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka-NextHash).

Mindful of the threat posed by Van der Poel’s strength and Nizzolo’s finishing speed, Deceuninck-QuickStep soon set about attacking in turn, and the decisive break went clear thanks to Honoré’s acceleration with 22km to go. The Dane was joined by his teammate Sénéchal, Stuyven, Clark and Van der Sande in front.

All eyes were on Van der Poel to close the gap after his earlier jousts with Alaphilippe, but the Dutchman suffered a most untimely puncture barely a kilometre later. That incident effectively ended his challenge and all but guaranteed that Sénéchal, Honoré et al would stay clear to the finish.

The five leaders combined smoothly to extend their advantage over the chasing group, which grew in size as it lost impetus, but their détente would expire on the run-in. The Deceuninck-QuickStep pairing were understandably wary of Stuyven’s speed and nous in the finale, and so they returned to the time-honoured template of attacking in turn.

Honoré was the first to go with 7km to go, with Simon Clarke marking his move. When he was brought back, Sénéchal kicked with only Van der Sande for company. Stuyven was prominent in pinning back each move, but he had to relent when Honoré went once more with Van der Sande with a little over 5km to go.

That looked like the winning move, particularly as Clark was distanced, leaving Stuyven without an ally. But despite Sénéchal’s policing presence on his wheel, Stuvyen summoned up the strength to make another determined chasing effort, and he brought Honoré and Van der Sande back with 2.5km to go.

Deceuninck-QuickStep hadn’t run out of ideas, however. Indeed, they hadn’t yet exhausted the possibilities of the original idea, as Honoré made two more accelerations with 1.8km to go and again just shy of the flamme rouge. On each occasion, Stuyven was pressed to chase and a little more of the venom was drawn out of his legs.

Inside the final kilometre, the pace dropped almost to a standstill, which allowed Clarke to latch back on, but the Australian was flagging and unable to rustle up a surprise attack. Instead, it came down to a small sprint, which Honoré led out on behalf of Sénéchal.

Stuyven attempted to come around, but he hadn’t the strength to do so, as Sénéchal powered through to claim the win ahead of Van der Sande.

Behind, Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) clipped away from the chasers to take 6th place at 53 seconds, while Stybar won the sprint for 7th ahead of Van der Poel, Nizzolo and Ballerini.

The victory was Sénéchal’s second of the season after his stage win at the Vuelta a España. His fellow countryman Alaphilippe was among the first to congratulate him on the triumph, and the pair will hope to combine to similar effect in Leuven next Sunday.

“It gives me confidence ahead of the Worlds, and it’s good for the French team because Julian rode very well today,” said Sénéchal, who acknowledged that the race had been an ideal warm-up for the main event next weekend.

“It was raced like a classic, with lots of small roads and short climbs. There was no waiting around. A lot of riders wanted to make the race and there was a lot of attacking, and the best riders were in front.”