Gerben Kuypers solos to the best victory of his early career

No Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock, Michael Vanthourenhout, Eli Iserbyt or Laurens Sweeck at the start. It gave the ‘lesser gods’ the opportunity to get their shot in this match. Kuypers was the first to flee. He took Adams, Verstrynge, Clement Horny, Lennert Belmans, Victor Van De Putte, Diether Sweeck, Yorben Lauryssen, Jente Michels, the Dutchman David van der Poel and home driver Tom Meeusen in tow.

At the start of the second lap, the leading group was reduced to six riders. Kuypers was only accompanied by Adams, Verstrynge, Horny, Belmans and Van De Putte. Adams made a mistake in the fourth round and was briefly on foot. Kuypers and Verstrynge then went on the attack. When Verstrynge punctured, Kuypers was alone. Going into the fifth of a total of ten laps, he was four seconds behind his former companion.

With four laps to go, Verstrynge, Michels, Van De Putte and Adams joined forces in pursuit of Kuypers, but the gap was already 31 seconds. After 38 minutes of cross, the turbo kicked in at Adams, who counterattacked alone. He didn’t get more than a second place.

Kuypers continued to drive like a metronome and followed Wout van Aert on the honors list. It is the sixth victory of the season for Kuypers, he previously won the first five rounds in the Coupe de France.