Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team racks up two wins in one day.
It’s been a long and arduous road for Senne Hulsmans, but the young Belgian kept believing and fought hard, and finally was rewarded for this. Forced to delay his start to the season due a knee injury which required surgery, Senne made his first outing of the year for the Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team this Wednesday and convincingly won the Herenthout kermesse in pouring rain, bringing the team’s tally for the year to 16 victories.
Consisting of 15 laps, the race was completely flat and 116 kilometers in length, and as it happens in this type of events, it was full gas from the start. In the first part of the race, several riders got away, but they couldn’t open a considerable gap on the peloton, who pulled them back with ease.
Another move, this time counting twenty riders, went clear around 60 kilometers from the finish, and Senne was there, but the peloton brought back this group after some fierce chasing. In the end, it all came down to a bunch sprint, and the 19-year-old emerged as the fastest, putting a couple of bike lengths into his opponents to capture his maiden win of the season.
“I was very nervous before the start, because it was my first race in ten months. I had trained for it, but it was a bit like going into the unknown. But I felt good, I attacked, shut down some moves, and then joined that large group which was caught. I made sure to save some energy for the finale, where the guys did a good lead-out and I made sure of going first into the last corner. That was very important and it’s how I came out on top in the end. It feels good to be back, to win my very first race of the year gives me a lot of confidence”, said Senne, whose victory came hours after the one of his teammate William Junior Lecerf in Herbeumont.
Photo credit: ©Wout Beel
