At the end of a fast and hectic race, Julien Vermote sprinted to 12th place.
It took more than an hour for a break to take shape at the 46th edition of Heistse Pijl, and when that happened, Tom Boonen was there, together with Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice), Elias Van Breussegem (Verandas Willems), Nick Van Der Lijke (Roompot Oranje), Stef Van Zummeren (Verandas Willems) and Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo). The group of the two-time winner opened a maximum gap of 1:30, which helped them stay at the front until the last 70 kilometers, when they were reabsorbed by the peloton led by LottoNL-Jumbo and Topsport Vlaanderen.
Once the riders became familiar with the 17.5-km long circuit which they had to cover eight times, more attacks followed, with Heistse Berg (450 meters, 5.1% average) being used as launchpad, and one of them saw no less than 14 men establish a gap of 30 seconds. Fernando Gaviria, Yves Lampaert and Nikolas Maes were among the escapees who were trying to give the slip to the bunch, and the riders worked together until the final 10 kilometers, when a plethora of attacks led to the advantage dropping.
First to make a move was Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal), whose action was closed almost immediately by Nikolas, an action followed by the one of Sean De Bie (Lotto-Soudal) and Dries De Bondt (Verandas Willems), who was soon countered by Yves, the Gullegem Koerse runner-up. Unfortunately for the breakaway, the peloton – which was always on their heels – made contact right under the flamme rouge, and the race concluded with a chaotic bunch sprint, won by Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo), ahead of Wouter Wippert (Cannondale) and Aidis Kruopis (Verandas Willems).
Right after the finish, sport director Wilfried Peeters made a short analysis of Heistse Pijl, which saw Julien Vermote come 12th, Etixx – Quick-Step's best result on the day: "We made the race and were all the time in the thick of the action, but unfortunately things didn't pan out as we had hoped. Despite that, we can take many positives from this race, one of which is that Fernando is on the right track following the injury which sidelined him in the spring, and this makes us confident for the Tour de Suisse."
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
