For the second 12 months in a row in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Belgian all-rounder Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) chanced his arm with a late breakaway to attempt to hold the sprinters at bay, albeit with a really completely different and much much less profitable outcome than 2024. Wellens remained upbeat on the end line nonetheless.
In 2024 Wellens broke away with Wout van Aert, Oier Lazkano and Laurence Pithie on the Mont Saint Laurent with round 90 kilometres to go, solely to be defeated by the Visma-Lease a Bike chief on the road.
This time spherical, after testing the waters on the identical ascent, Wellens and Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R) bridged throughout to the early break of the day some 30 kilometres additional on, and the main group then proceeded to maintain the bunch at bay for the perfect a part of an hour.
The remaining 4 survivors, together with Wellens, have been solely reeled in after a protracted pursuit throughout the flat plains of West Flanders main again to Kuurne. But regardless of failing to make the rostrum for a second 12 months working, Wellens nonetheless insisted his technique in a gutsy 50 kilometre break had been the perfect one to pursue.
“We knew we could not look forward to the dash, we tried fairly exhausting within the hilly zone, however then solely the 2 of us made it throughout,” Wellens informed reporters afterwards.
“We had a fairly good breakaway transfer, however there have been simply too many riders behind. If we might jumped with just a few guys as an alternative, we might have had a significantly better likelihood.
“It was a pleasant group however the bunch was by no means that far behind. I attempted to get issues going by shaking off a number of the different guys, however the bunch accelerated as properly and it was exhausting to assault much more.”
What may need been a gamechanger would have been if Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) had subsquently managed to bridge throughout with Roger Adria (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in his counter-attack after Wellens’ transfer, on the ultimate ascent of the day, the Kluisberg.
But the younger Catalan racer, driving his first ever cobbled Classic this season, was clearly underneath directions to attend for the bunch the place Bora have been hoping to contend the dash with Jordi Meeus – who lastly positioned eleventh – and regardless of some apparent gestures from Van Aert to collaborate, he sat on and the 2 have been reeled in.
71st after his 61 kilometre break, Wellens remained optimistic regardless of the shortage of seen success, arguing that he got here away from Opening Weekend with good sensations and good numbers, all of which bodes properly for the remainder of Classics season.
“I do know Saturday was a wierd race, however the Watts have been fairly excessive for me and I felt good,” he stated. “We do not have a win this weekend however we tried and we won’t win each race.
“Everybody knew the sprinters’ groups would go for it, however we do these sorts of strikes to progress, to get good morale, and we hope we attempt to win. But this wasn’t an assault to check my legs for later. We do it to win instantly.”
Wellens got here away from the Kuurne blended zone with a smile on his face, in any case, as he discovered from a reporter that even when he hadn’t taken a victory, UAE had simply managed to win the Faun Drôme Classic together with his teammate Juan Ayuso. “That’s sensible information,” he stated with a smile, earlier than pedalling away to a well-earned bathe and relaxation after a tough weekend’s racing.
