After more than 80 kilometres in the break at Textielprijs Vichte, Iljo Keisse (Quick Step Floors) finished off the job by taking his second victory of the season.
The 85th edition of the race (174 kilometres), which took place on a fast circuit in Anzegem, a small town in the province of West Flanders, got off to a quiet start, with the attacks starting to come only towards the end of the second lap. A hectic race unfolded from that point on, with Tim Declercq and stagiaire Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz among the ones trying to infiltrate into the break.
But it was only inside the 80 kilometres that a group finally took off, seven riders – including Iljo Keisse – snapping the elastic and building a 1:30 maximum gap.
With six laps left, only four riders were still in the escape and their chances of making it looked slim, but grew again once 14 riders bridged across from the peloton. Pieter Serry was there and worked hard for Keisse, shutting down all the attacks while at the same time pushing the watts at the front and helping the group keep a 30-second advantage over the chasers.
The final kilometre of the race was a crazy one, as a handful of riders accelerated and split the group. Keisse wasn’t there, but the 34-year-old Belgian put in a strong dig to join them, which he did, with just 500 metres to go.
Then, just as the others were positioning themselves for the sprint, Keisse attacked and opened a gap which he carried all the way to the finish line, where he nabbed his third victory at Textielprijs Vichte, after the ones of 2007 and 2008. Nikolas Maes (Lotto Soudal) took second place with Jan-Willem van het Schip (Delta Cycling Rotterdam) finishing third.
“In the first part of the race I took it easy, but then I went clear with several other riders and despite the break not going north of 1:30, we pulled hard to stay away. Then, with five laps to go, when we were only four men left at the front, 14 riders joined us, including Pieter, who did a fantastic job covering all attacks”, explained Keisse after the finish in Anzegem.
The Belgian, who scored Quick-Step Floors’ fifth victory at the race, continued: “I wanted to go for the sprint, but with one kilometre left a few riders broke clear. Fortunately, I closed the gap at 500 metres to go, and then, with only 350 meters remaining, I went again and gave the slip to the sprinters, managing to cross the line alone. In this time of the year I’m always quite good and the two recent wins give me a lot of motivation for my next races.”
