German champion Pascal Ackermann won the Brussels Cycling Classic on Saturday, which despite featuring a number of Flemish hellingen ended in a bunch sprint.
The one-day race, one of the oldest classics, led the riders around Brussels on a 201km-long route. The parcours contained no less than 13 small climbs, the last of which was 40 kilometres ahead of the finish line. The race began in Jubelpark in the Belgian capital city and meandered through slightly hilly terrain initially towards the south east, where the first of the 13 ascents waited for the peloton 14.3km after the start.
The race proceeded further south from there towards Nivelles, where several small climbs had to be contended with in succession. Afterwards, the race headed back towards Brussels, but this time not to the centre, but rather the northern edge of the city, where the finish line awaited the riders near the King Baudouin Stadium.
The second ascent of the day saw several attacks, after which a group of six was able to establish itself at the head of the race. During the day, the advantage of the group hovered around 2’30” and the race situation remained largely unchanged.
Entering into the last third of the course, under the tempo meted out by Groupama – FDJ, the gap slowly began to whittle down. On the penultimate climb, several riders broke free from the peloton and tried to bridge the gap to the leading group, but BORA – hansgrohe remained attentive and came to the front of the main field to pursue the attackers.
With 15km remaining, several riders in the breakaway hit the deck, and everything came together a few kilometres later. Not long afterwards, the sprinters’ teams took a renewed interest in setting the tempo and the preparations for the final sprint began in earnest. BORA – hansgrohe was also in position at the front as the team attempted to navigate Pascal Ackermann into a good position for the final sprint.
As expected, it came down to a bunch sprint between the fast men in Brussels. However, just before the finish line, many riders went down in a crash. In a hectic sprint, Pascal Ackermann was able to pull of a convincing victory ahead of Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) and Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie).
Pascal Ackermann – “The race was not easy today. We had to contend with 13 ascents and that made the race quite difficult. The team rode fantastically and worked for me the whole day. I am very happy about my win here in Brussels, because it is my first victory on Belgian soil. I hope that I am able to achieve more success here in the future.“
