First season victory for Theuns in Ruddervoorde

Theuns was the fastest of a leading group of 10. He beat the Frenchman Samuel Leroux and the Dutchman David van der Poel in the sprint.

Already in the first round, Samuel Leroux and Edward Theuns have lit the fire, they are also in the leading group of 22, which remarkably enough contains a lot of cyclo-cross riders such as Joran Wyseure, Gerben Kuypers, Thijs Aerts, David van der Poel and Ryan Camp. Thomas Joseph from Tarteletto and Kenny Molly from the Roubaix team also made the jump. Roubaix and Alpecin-Deceuninck are outnumbered in front, each with 4 males. Another interesting name, the Dutchman Bert-Jan Lindeman.

Stan Dewulf was surprised, he is among the first pursuers, together with Timothy Dupont Jelle Wallays, Tom Van Asbrouck, Timo Kielich, Alex Colman and Arno Claeys, among others. Halfway through the race, their backlog is just under 2 minutes, which drops to 1.5 minutes on 4 laps. Long straight roads in Ruddervoorde, the speed is high. Last year the riders achieved an average of 47 in Ruddervoorde.

The group of the front runners is too large, so we have to wait for it to break. Edward Theuns and Sander De Pestel clearly feel good, 22 become 10 at the front: Roubaix still has 3 men with him: Molly, Jarnet and Leroux. Alpecin is with two: Joran Wyseure and David van der Poel. Andreas Goeman is the man of Tarteletto, Peter Schulting is the Dutchman of Volker Wessels and Gerben Kuypers is still there, the surprise of the last cyclo-cross season. Anything after that is worth it. The winner is one of ten in the front.

Roubaix keeps the pace high in the final phase, in function of sprinter Samuel Leroux. There are no more crashes, but in the sprint Leroux has to beat Edward Theuns who easily beats the Frenchman and David van der Poel. After his second place in Nokere Koerse this year, Theuns takes his first win of the season.