Three of our riders finished in the top ten.
Gil Gelders raised his arms in the air at the end of Thursday’s Izegem Koers, which covered 19 laps of an exciting 9.3km circuit. In doing so, Gil became the first Soudal Quick-Step rider since Yves Lampaert, seven years ago, to win the 56th edition of the kermesse which was attended also by Tim Declercq, who had the honor to give the start.
It didn’t take long for a group of 22 riders to go clear, and from that move - which managed to hold off the chasers - six men opened a gap in the closing kilometers. Both Gelders and Cériel Desal were there, and the latter work hard for his teammate and made sure of closing down a couple of dangerous attacks, before Gil produced a fantastic surge in the last 250 meters just before the last corner to win by the smallest of margins margin ahead of Florian Sénéchal (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
I’m really happy with this victory!
“It was a hard race, with a lot of attacks, but I made sure of always being in the right move. Having Cériel with me certainly helped, and I want to thank him for his effort. In the finale, I knew I wasn’t the fastest, that’s why I tried to anticipate, and I’m delighted I could hold off Florian to take the victory in this beautiful race”, said the 23-year-old Belgian, who was joined in the top ten by Cériel Desal (4th) and Warre Vangheluwe (9th).
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
