Our 22-year-old Colombian needed only two races to return on the podium, following a lengthy break.
Defending champion Alvaro Hodeg, who earlier this week resumed competition in Nokere Koerse after more than four weeks, was in the mix for Deceuninck – Quick-Step in the Bredene Koksijde Classic final, where last season, when the race was still known as Handzame Classic, he nabbed his maiden pro victory.
Our team came with two cards to play at the start of the 199.5km-long race, but Fabio Jakobsen was involved in a crash with 16 kilometers to go and despite remounting, he couldn’t rejoin the peloton anymore. In the same incident, Hodeg had a mechanical and immediately got the bike of Pieter Serry, but due to the huge turn of pace at the front of the bunch he couldn’t change to his bike again and that weighed on the final result.
Another pile-up, this time with less than three kilometers to go, added an extra pinch of nervousness and further reduced the group, which was led by Rémi Cavagna and Remco Evenepoel, who had done a wonderful job the entire day controlling the breakaway and bringing the seven escapees as well as the late attackers back to heel, before the pointy end of the race.
Led under the flamme rouge by the experienced Iljo Keisse, who also helped him navigate the tricky final corners, Alvaro Hodeg opened his sprint with 150 meters to go and concluced third in Koksijde, behind Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) and Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Sky): “I nearly crashed in that first incident, but fortunately I didn’t go down. On the other hand. I was forced to change my bike and got Pieter’s, and it wasn’t easy to change back to mine, as the pack was going full gas. I’m not looking for an excuse, but it wasn’t easy in the sprint. I want to thank to the guys – Rémi, Remco, Pieter and Iljo – who were amazing and rode for me the whole day.”
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen/ Getty Images
