Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates) scored the primary win of his skilled profession on the Super 8 Classic, soloing to glory from a choose lead group late within the 198km race.
The Italian crossed the road alone 21 seconds forward of Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling), who struck out from the chase within the remaining 2km. Rui Oliveira made it two on the rostrum for UAE Team Emirates with a third-placed end, 31 seconds down.
Baroncini, the previous U23 world champion, was a part of a choose group of round 15 males who got here collectively within the lead of the race in the direction of the tip of the ‘hill zone’ round 20km from the road with the bigger peloton in pursuit.
He had Oliveira for firm, whereas different names up entrance included Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech), Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny), GP Wallonie winner Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), and Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty).
With solely the day’s remaining climb of the Bosstraat left to sort out at 15km out, the lead group loved a lead of over a minute on the chasing peloton, which contained a lot of the high sprinters within the race.
The race was all set for an enormous battle among the many leaders on the run into Haacht, however Baroncini took issues into his personal fingers to leap away as Oliveira coated strikes behind.
Pluimers, Adrià and Teunissen have been amongst these making an attempt to make solo strikes within the chase as Baroncini constructed his lead up in the direction of 30 seconds, however no one may get throughout to the 24-year-old.
He may benefit from the closing metres of his effort protected within the information that he’d succeeded in his efforts to remain away, whereas behind him a 3rd and remaining assault from Pluimers at 1.3km out noticed the Dutchman lastly break away and roll dwelling for second place.
How it unfolded
The semi-Classic, final 12 months gained by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) for his first victory within the rainbow jersey of world champion, noticed the peloton tackle a difficult and hilly 198km course from Brakel to Haacht, with 10 main hills crammed into the second half of the route.
Early within the day, Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB), Kay De Bruyckere (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), Lars Craps (Flanders-Baloise), Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Julius van den Berg (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) bought away to type the race’s fundamental breakaway.
It was a strong-looking transfer and as such, the group wasn’t allowed greater than a three-minute benefit. That hole solely went down because the race approached the hills, which included the Chemin de l’Herbe, Moskestraat, and Florivalstraat.
Johan Jacobs (Movistar) and Natnael Tesfatsion (Lidl-Trek) launched hopeful assaults in an try and bridge the hole to the leaders throughout this era of the race, however neither managed to get throughout.
Both have been duly introduced again, and the race hit the Moskestraat for a second and remaining time with 36km to go together with simply three males ignored entrance – Johanessen, De Bruyckere, and Van den Berg left within the lead.
Heading up the hill, with three additional climbs left to sort out, that they had simply 20 seconds on the peloton, although accelerations from behind – together with one from Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) kind of introduced them again by the highest.
He made it throughout together with Vermeersch, however the peloton was fast to close any potential counter-move down. That didn’t cease the assaults and counter-attacks, nonetheless.
Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies) led Baroncini, Pluimers and Adrià within the subsequent wave of strikes, with the quartet sustaining a small hole to a bigger chase group with the peloton lagging behind.
Just earlier than the ultimate hill of the Bosstraat, the chasing group got here throughout to the leaders, forming the bigger group that will contest the ultimate with the sprinters again within the peloton and effectively out of the image.
From there, Baroncini laid in wait and picked his second to go. At 14km, his transfer got here a great distance from the road, nevertheless it proved to be excellent as he constructed his lead and saved the momentum going all the best way to the road for UAE Team Emirates’ seventy fifth win of the 2024 season.
Results
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