Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team takes its fifth win of the season.
Cériel Desal became the first Belgian in more than two decades to win the Boucle de l’Artois, the French one-day race held between Thélus and Fruges, in the Pas-de-Calais department.
The 190km parcours was a demanding one, featuring the small but tough hills characteristic of the area, but also a lot of wind, which resulted in a crash after 40 kilometers, involving many riders, including all our team members. The organisers decided to neutralize the race for an hour, and when it resumed, the Soudal Quick-Step Devo boys made their presence felt at the front of the bunch, splitting it in the crosswinds.
Cériel, Joeri Schaper and Erazem Valjavec were soon part of a select 12-man group, and the trio continued to press on, eventually narrowing the group down to just three riders. Desal had Erazem alongside him, and on one of the race’s climbs, with 13 kilometers to go, he attacked never to be seen again until the finish.
The Belgian rode under the flamme rouge with 30 seconds in hand, enough for him to sit up 100 meters from the line and celebrate his first victory for our feeder squad, while from behind, Valjavec made it two Soudal Quick-Step Devo riders in the top ten on Saturday, after sprinting to third place.
The race was quite tense from the beginning, because there was a lot of wind on Saturday.
“We were unlucky to be in that crash, but after the race started again, the team went full gas and made proper use of the crosswinds. With 90 kilometers to go, we had three guys in the front group, from where Ceriel and Erazem rode clear together with another guy, putting us in an even more favourable situation. Cériel finished it off after a big attack and a perfect ride and a really strong team performance. We can all be proud of the way things went, the entire squad was flawless today”, a happy Eliot Lietaer, the team’s sports director, said after the race.
Photo credit: ©Wout Beel