The Opening Weekend of the Flanders Classics concluded with Sunday’s 1.Pro-rated 78th Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, where Brit Matthew Brennan scored a key early-season victory for Visma-Lease a Bike. It was the yellow-clad squad’s third triumph of the season, and two of them are Brennan’s.

Preliminaries

Last season Jasper Philipsen won on his 27th birthday, a day after an Omloop Het Nieuwsblad podium.

As in Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad where he was 128th, the lone Canadian was Guillaume Boivin.

The Course

Over the 193 km there were cobbles, climbs and cobbled climbs, but the climbs were done with 62 km to go and the last 500-metre stretch of cobbles not too far away from that. The riders took on a 14-km finishing circuit around Kuurne.

A route likely to end in a bunch sprint. Image by La Flamme Rouge

It took a while for the day’s breakaway to get established, but after 77 km seven chaps were 3:50 up the road and nine cobbled sectors or climbs were behind them. As on Saturday, there were crashes that caused riders, including Tim Wellens, to abandon.

With 89 km to go and the escape getting closer, Soudal-Intermarche accelerated on Le Bourliquet, temporarily splitting the peloton. Mont Saint-Laurent was a cobbled climb, 1.3 km of 7.1 percent, where Philipsen whipped up the pace.

Philipsen opens up the throttle on the Mont Saint-Laurent

With the long but moderately steep Kruisberg-Hotond coming up, a group including Matej Mohorič and Omloop runner-up Tim van Dijke formed around Philipsen, but it couldn’t stay free of the peloton. Philipsen dug in again, drawing an even bigger group, but once more there was a reforming. However, the breakaway was now within 1:30 with 73 km to go. Mohorič skipped away with a few blokes on Côte du Trieu.

The final climb was Kluisberg, where the front quarter of the peloton snapped off and dashed away. This move caught the breakaway with 61 km to race. The wind started to play hob with the field from the left-hand side and echelons formed before the rain touched down. A front group of 25 kept chopping and changing as the race headed to the day’s final cobbles. Philipsen was in the leading group but a mechanical made it necessary to hop on a teammate’s bike.

Philipsen hops on Edward Plankaerts’ machine.

The gang at the business end of the race grew in the town of Kortrijk. When it entered the finishing circuit, the peloton was 50 strong. Decathlon-CMA, Visma-Lease-a-Bike and Soudal-QuickStep were prominent at the front. Lotto-Intermarche and Red Bull got involved. The traffic furniture made the build up to the climax tricky. A small colony of riders spurted out of the group with 2.6 km to go.

However, it would come down to a classic reduced sprint. Brennan grabbed teammate Christophe Laporte’s wheel, opened it up on the right-hand barrier and there was no one close to him. Tudor put two Italian riders on the podium.

78th Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
1) Matthew Brennan (Great Britain/Visma-Lease a Bike) 4:25
2) Luca Mozzato (Italy/Tudor) s.t.
3) Matteo Trentin (Italy/Tudor) s.t.