Oh my goodness, what a race !
Van Aert seemed to have it hand during one lap and a half than had a puncture and had to let Van der Poel take the lead. He could come as close as 3 seconds from Van der Poel but the Dutchman negociated the bridge better and the sand section before the bridge as well. Wout seemed to imply that the puncture cost him the win but I'm pretty sure that Mathieu was in a better shape today. Still two to go for Mathieu to equal Erik De Vlaeminck's record. And I'm pretty confident that Wout will get a new title before the end of his career. Such a great rivalry that is !
Stybar was indeed very far behind on the start grid, actually dead last and then Michel Wuyts saw him move up to around 15th place on the first ascent of the small bridge (the one in the hippodrome). Then we never got to see him back on screen but he did finish 18th. It's a performance as such because only 20 riders out of 44 made it to the finish and he was one of 'em. Curtis White is the last finisher, the rider who had enough class to share us that route preview video above.
So 4/4 for the Netherlands ! Hats off for our Northern neighbours !
However in terms of collective presence, Belgium is still there at least in the Men's Elite race. 6 riders in the first 8 ! Of course this is made possible by the sandy route, which is in our favour. A bit like in Koksijde 2012 when Belgium monopolised the 7 first places.
1 VAN DER POEL Mathieu
0:58:57
2 VAN AERT Wout
0:59:34
3 AERTS Toon
1:00:21
4 PIDCOCK Thomas
1:00:34
5 SWEECK Laurens
1:01:02
6 VANTHOURENHOUT Michael
1:01:11
7 ISERBYT Eli
1:01:15
8 HERMANS Quinten
1:01:20
9 VAN DER HAAR Lars
1:01:38
10 NIEUWENHUIS Joris
1:02:12
11 VAN KESSEL Corne
1:03:06
12 VERMEERSCH Gianni
1:03:18
13 KUHN Kevin
1:03:26
14 SOETE Daan
1:03:54
15 GRAS Yan
1:04:08
16 DUBAU Joshua
1:04:25
17 MERLIER Tim
1:04:31
18 ŠTYBAR Zdeněk
1:04:39
19 RÜEGG Timon
1:04:47
20 WHITE Curtis
1:05:30
