After getting involved at an intermediate sprint, the 24-year-old Pole finished safely in the pack and is now just 8 seconds behind the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen leader.
Stage 1 (Brugge – Harelbeke, 176.3 km) of the Belgian race witnessed a fast start, this being the reason for which a group didn’t manage to snap the elastic. The main cause was that many teams were interested in contesting the first intermediate sprint, where Lukasz Wisniowski – third on Friday’s prologue – came in second position, grabbing some bonus seconds which could prove useful when a line will be drawn at the end of the event. As soon as things calmed down after the first hour of racing, a group of eight broke from the pack, Julian Alaphilippe being among those to get clear.
The escapees had no more than 3:30 in hand, because many of the riders at the front posed a big threat to general classification leader Tom Bohli (BMC). In the final 20 kilometers, the leading group got fragmented and in the end was brough back, so the stage concluded with a bunch gallop, won by Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo), who was followed by Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto-Soudal) and Baptiste Planckaert (Wallonie-Bruxelles).
Lukasz Wisniowski was protected by his teammates throughout the day and came in the same time, which meant he kept his third place in the overall standings, and is now just 8 seconds behind the yellow jersey wearer. Everything will be played on Sunday (Niuewpoor – Ichtegem, 182.7 km), on a tough course which has eight climbs and five cobbled sectors.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
