British neo-pro takes a morale-boosting result at the GP Monseré.
Ethan Vernon carried the flag for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl at Sunday’s race, which came down to a bunch sprint, albeit a reduced one, after a full gas final hour of racing. Despite coming at the start with only five riders, the Wolfpack featured prominently and controlled the gap to the original five-man break, which hit a maximum of almost six minutes after the first of the day’s four local laps.
Stijn Steels, Jannik Steimle and Stan Van Tricht assumed responsibility and ate into the advantage of the escapees, who were overhauled with around 60 kilometers to go. On one of the numerous small climbs sprinkled over the last lap, our team helped split the field, only 30 men making the cut. Attacks continued to come, especially the last time up the Gitsberg (400 meters, 3.2%), but they were fruitless as the teams spared no effort when it came to chasing down those moves.
Launched by Bert Van Lerberghe, a top 10 finisher earlier this week at Le Samyn, Ethan Vernon showed his fast legs by concluding fifth – as Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Soudal) sprinted to victory – an encouraging result for the 21-year-old from Bedford.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
