Grand Prix de Wallonie: 20-year-old Aubin Sparfel takes a career-best victory catching a late break on the line

Decathlon CMA CGM’s youngster Aubin Sparfel won the Grand Prix de Wallonie on Wednesday, triumphing in a long-range and very close sprint ahead of French champion Roman Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United).

Guesting for the WorldTour team from the development squad, the 20-year-old led the charge, bridging to a two-man leading group, teammate Paul Lapeira, with around 300 metres to go, coming over the top of Grégoire – who was already sprinting – with a handful of metres remaining.

Another French rider, Milan Fretin (Cofidis), finished third.

For its 66th edition, the Grand Prix de Wallonie tackled a 196.8km route starting in the southern Belgian town of Seraing, close to Liège, before winding its way west through the hills of Wallonia and tackling its traditional uphill finish to the Citadelle de Namur.

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Despite favourable terrain, the peloton stayed together for the opening kilometres, even on the flat early section, the speed staying relatively low, and it was only after 50km that a break gained any traction.

Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet-Rise Rockets), Davide Bais (Polti-VisitMalta), Léandre Huck (Van Rysel-Roubaix), Marijn Maas (Beat CC p/b Saxo), and the Tarteletto-Isorex pair of Yorben Lauryssen and Jonah Killy quickly built a lead of 2:30, the race riding across a plateau.

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That gap only grew, and as the race entered its final 100km entered the final 100km the break had 3:30 on the chasing bunch.

On the Mur de Lustin, around 20km further on, Lauryssen was dropped for the break as the break began gently reeling them back in, the gap dropping more quickly when Mathis Le Berre (TotalEnergies) and Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek) headed up the road. However, even though the pair quickly caught and dropped Lauryssen, the peloton was reluctant to allow them much more than 30 seconds, with Groupama-FDJ United patrolling the front.

Their control on the front was loosened when Le Berre and Verona were joined by Simone Gualdi (Lotto-Intermarché), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Rui Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Killy, who had been dropped by the leading group. This enlarged group contained six riders from six different teams, reducing the number of squads likely to help a flagging Groupama squad, and the peloton began dropping back.

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Just inside the final 40km, the chasing group finally reached the front of the race, forming a leading break of 10, with the peloton 1:30 behind. But with fresh legs in the form of NSN and Tudor adding weight to the chase, that did not last long. The advantage was 50 seconds as the leaders hit the Cöte d’Ermeton, 35km from the line, and the peloton was back in control.

With 20km to go, the peloton were within touching distance, and despite a vain attempt by Abrahamsen, the break was caught before the penultimate climb, Tienne aux Pierres. Decathlon CMA CGM upped the pace, stretching but not quite breaking the peloton.

Over the top, a powerful move from Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) came to nothing, and on the final flat section before the 3km ascent to the finish at Citadelle, he was replaced by Marco Haller (Tudor), who took a lead of 10 seconds onto the cobbles.

Groupama brought him back, though, the French team leading a much reduced peloton up the climb for Roman Grégoire, who attacked as the gradient eased 2km from the line. Lapeira stuck to his wheel, though, the pair leading into the final kilometre.

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