Irish riders Jack Wilson (An Post – Chainreaction) and Eddie Dunbar (NFTO) put in good performances today in the UCI 1.2 Omloop van het Waasland in Belgium, as they both made it into breaks during the day.
The 192 km race in the region between Antwerp and Ghent consisted of an initial 62 km loop followed by nine laps of 14.4 kms. The riders had to contend with nine sectors of cobbles.
Wilson and Karol Domagalski (Team Raleigh) were the first to attack, but weren’t given much leeway by the peloton and were soon brought back. Next to go was Matti Manninen (Team Raleigh) who attacked with about 127 kms remaining. He was soon joined by Mathias Krigbaum (Lotto – Soudal U23) and Dunbar. Once again, the peloton didn’t allow them to gain too much of a lead, and they were brought back with 110 kms left to race.
With 67 kms remaining, a new break formed with Victor Campenaerts (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise) going up the road and he was joined by Wilson and his earlier breakaway companion Domagalski, Francis De Greef (Wanty – Gobert Group), Melvin Van Zijl (Team 3M), Kai Reus (Verandas Willems), and Michiel Dieleman (Smartphoto CT).
They quickly built up a lead of a minute as many of the big teams were represented in the group.
However, once again they weren’t allowed to build up too big a lead, and were brought back with 27 kms remaining.
It was Geert Van der Weijst of Team 3M who would go on to win the race ahead of Joeri Stallaert (Team Cibel) and Oliver Naesen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise).
