Jakobsen sprints to victory in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne
KUURNE (ANP) – The Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen has won the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne cycling race on Sunday. The Quick-Step – Alpha Vinyl sprinter won the sprint that had started shortly behind a leading group of three. Jakobsen protected the Australian Caleb Ewan behind him. Frenchman Hugo Hofstetter came in third.
The race over 195 kilometers was barely caught up in a bunch sprint among the last three refugees, less than 100 meters before the finish. The Dutchman from Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert finished tenth. Jakobsen has already written this year in the Tour of Valencia and the Tour of the Algarve.
“It was not easy, from kilometer 100 it has never stopped,” Jakobsen looked back on the course at TV channel Sporza. He had no teammates left to start the sprint in the final phase. “I had to use everyone to get closer. In the end, those three guys in the lead were my ‘. I dove behind them and had to fill it up to the finish.”
leading group
The Australian Luke and Van der Hoorn were the examples in the early leading group. Up the pace in the direction of some Walloon slopes above the peloton. The leading group thinned out, just like the group behind that Quick-Step was going to participate in. Namely the Dane Kasper Asgreen started on the Kluisberg, about 70 kilometers before the finish.
Big act Tiesj Benoot on the Côte du Trieu. There is a sizeable leading group with refugees from the first hour, but also Benoot’s teammates Nathan van Hooydonck and Christophe Laporte from Jumbo-Visma. Quick-Step had Asgreen and Yves Lampaert with them, but missed Jakobsen, who, like many sprinters, was already behind the Kluisberg.
The peloton did not stop and saw more riders fall back from the leading group. But Van der Hoorn, Ecuadorian Jhonatan Narváez and Laporte only gave in with the finish cloth in sight. “You always have to keep sprinting for the win,” said Jakobsen, who had kept hoping for a bunch sprint. Winning Milan-Sanremo: the Heukelummer as one of his wishes for the coming years. “But then I have to drive even better uphill and be able to handle a course of 300 kilometers.”