Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) continued his remarkable 2023 season with a dominant victory in the bunch sprint on stage 1 of the Renewi Tour in Ardooie. The Belgian delivered a powerful effort to claim the spoils ahead of Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma).
Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) opened the sprint from distance, but he had Philipsen parked on his wheel in the final kilometre, and the man of the moment would cruise to a commanding win to claim the overall lead.
De Lie, whose new, long-term deal with Lotto-Dstny was announced on Wednesday morning, had to settle for fourth place, while Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) took fifth ahead of Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates).
Few races on the calendar command a sprint field of this depth, though there were some notable absentees from the eventual mass finish. Sam Welsford (Team dsm-firmenich) crashed just inside the final 2km, while Arnaud Démare, now in Arkéa-Samsic colours after his transfer from Groupama-FDJ, was also held up in the incident, though he at least avoided hitting the ground.
In the sprint, Merlier appeared to finish quicker than anyone, but the former Belgian champion had to come from a long, long way back, and he ran out of road without ever looking like getting on the terms with Philipsen, who notched up his 11th win of the season.
“It was hectic, but my team kept me in good position, they protected me well and that was the key to success today,” Philipsen said.
The opening stage of the Renewi Tour was animated by a five-man break featuring Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates), Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost) Aaron Van Poucke (Team Flanders-Baloise), Ceriel Desal and Ludovic Robeet (Bingoal WB).
The quintet built up a maximum lead of three minutes but with so many sprinters of note in the peloton, they were never likely to upset the odds here. As per tradition in this event under its various guises, the Ardooie finale featured five laps of a 16km circuit, and the bunch gradually whittled away at the break’s advantage as they counted down towards the finish, with Alpecin-Deceuninck and Lotto-Dstny prominent among the chasers.
Covi, Rutsch and Desal were the last men standing on the penultimate lap as the bunch closed to within 15 seconds, and they succeeded in fending off the peloton and contest the Green Kilometre – previously the Golden Kilometre – of bonus sprints. Thanks to a solo effort that saw him collect 8 bonus seconds, Covi would finish the day in second place overall, two seconds behind Philipsen.
Come the bell, the break had been swept up, and the scene was set for a mass finish, though the fast men still had to navigate a tense finale, with crashes splitting the bunch with 14km to go and again inside the final 2km.
Philipsen, however, remained safely tucked towards the head of affairs throughout, and he produced a fine turn of speed to claim the honours in Ardooie. The race continues on Thursday with a 13.6km individual time trial in Sluis.
Results
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