Theuns wins Primus Classic

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Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) took his first win since 2017 at the Primus Classic, attacking late on to just about hold off the peloton in Haacht. Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Soudal) finished second and third, just metres behind.

Theuns' attack, which came inside the last 3km, came after a day of attacking moves from Trek, with Mads Pedersen attacking earlier on, and Jasper Stuyven disrupting the sprint trains with an attack in the final 10km.

It was a brave move, given that Theuns has a strong sprint himself, but the tactic worked to perfection. Ackermann led the charge behind, coming close enough to the Belgian at the line that a few metres more on the finishing straight would've given a different result.

How it unfolded

The break of the day contained Michael Schär (CCC Team), Dylan Bouwmans (Katusha-Alpecin), Aaron Verwilst (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Fritjof Røinås (Joker Fuel of Norway) and Elias Van Breusegem (Tartoletto-Isorex), with the men getting a gap of six minutes at one point.

But they wouldn't get that much leeway for too long, with the big names keen to make an impact as the climbs – 15 of them – started coming thick and fast midway through the day.

Attacks flew from Dries De Bondt (Corendon-Circus), Nathan Van Hooydonck (CCC Team) and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) at various points, but the original break still hung out front, at least until the Moskensstraat with 45km to go.

There, Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) put in a testing attack. Only Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) able to follow, in what might end up being a preview of next week's World Championships road race.

Things soon came back together though, as Van Hooydonck and Schär remained up front. The duo were caught inside the final 20km, setting up an expected sprint finish.

Trek had other ideas though, sending Stuyven up the road to play a wrecking role. He was caught 3km from the line, and was quickly replaced by Theuns. The Belgian got his gap, and pushed through the lactate threshold in the closing metres, hanging on at the line to take victory by half a bike-length.

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