{"id":728197,"date":"2026-06-10T20:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/728197\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T20:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T20:09:09","slug":"magnier-and-brennan-undone-by-strong-at-circuit-franco-belge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/728197\/","title":{"rendered":"Magnier and Brennan undone by Strong at Circuit Franco-Belge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corbin Strong<\/a> won<\/a> the Circuit Franco-Belge<\/a> on Wednesday afternoon. The New Zealander from NSN Cycling came out on top in a sprint up the hill. He beat top favorites Paul Magnier<\/a> (Soudal Quick-Step) and Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), among others, in a race where the Yellow Jerseys of Visma dominated the course.The Circuit Franco-Belge<\/a> is a race that has been held since 1988 and originally started as a stage race. Following victories by riders such as Koos Moerenhout, Robbie McEwen, and Arnaud D\u00e9mare, the race was transformed into a one-day event in 2016. Dylan Groenewegen won that year, but in recent years the organizers have opted for a more challenging course.<\/p>\n

With the finish at Mont-de-l’Enclus, it suddenly became more of a race for the classics specialists\u2014the men with the power to climb. But the strong sprinters who can handle a small climb also sensed their chance in Wallonia. With Arnaud De Lie, Matthew Brennan, and Paul Magnier at the start, there were three absolute top contenders who were hoping for a sprint finish.<\/p>\n

The first few kilometers were relatively flat, and a nine-man breakaway formed on that terrain. The group included Axel van der Tuuk (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexys Brunel (TotalEnergies), and Timo Roosen (Picnic PostNL). A nice little group, but they didn\u2019t stand a chance when the hills loomed ahead. It wasn\u2019t just the Mont-de-l\u2019Enclus that made the race tough; the Knokteberg was also part of the course.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

Visma | Lease a Bike and Kelderman are ready for battle<\/p>\n

The breakaway group fell apart in the hills: Brunel was clearly the best climber at the front, but on his own, the Frenchman stood little chance. The peloton was picking up speed, and at the 65-kilometer mark, Brunel was caught. At that point, the final stretch began, with attacks from the Cofidis and Uno-X Mobility camps. Visma | Lease a Bike also joined the fray.<\/p>\n

It was none other than Wilco Kelderman who launched the attack. The Dutchman had to pull out early in the Giro d’Italia but was fit enough to start in Belgium. He set off alongside Leander Van Hautegem (Flanders – Baloise). The pair built up a solid lead. It soon became clear that the young Belgian was no match for Kelderman\u2019s power, and Kelderman set off on his own.<\/p>\n

Behind him, there were many riders looking to make the break, but Visma | Lease a Bike consistently kept pace with every new breakaway attempt. That\u2019s how the 35-year-old climber managed to hold on for so long. In the final thirty kilometers, however, the gap quickly closed. As he entered the final lap, 22 kilometers from the finish, he was joined by a trio.<\/p>\n

Read more below the video!<\/p>\n

De Bondt and Simmons are battling it out in the lead groupDries De Bondt (Jayco AlUla) had made the breakaway, along with Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ) and Colby Simmons (EF Education-EasyPost), whose brother had won the Tour Auvergne – Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes earlier that day<\/a>. But the peloton was right behind them. Simmons then messed things up, and that cost him dearly.<\/p>\n

Because if you mess around, De Bondt will make sure you know it. With some skillful steering, the Belgian nearly sent Simmons into the shoulder. Kelderman and Jacobs were reeled in shortly after De Bondt and Simmons, so a full peloton headed into the final climb of the Knokteberg. There, Louis Barr\u00e9 (Visma | Lease a Bike) accelerated.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman pulled away quickly, while Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 gave chase. Just at that moment, team leader De Lie\u2019s legs gave out. A pivotal moment that opened up opportunities for the attackers: Riley Sheehan (NSN) and defending champion Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) immediately moved to the front. But it was stop-and-go, as there was little cooperation.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

Visma for Brennan, Quick-Step for Magnier<\/p>\n

Sprinters like Magnier and Brennan were able to rejoin the pack, and Visma | Lease a Bike still had five riders working for the young Brit. Together with Soudal Quick-Step, they therefore decided to pick up the pace in the final ten kilometers, preventing any breakaways. A spectacular crash by David Haverdings gave viewers a scare: he somersaulted into a ditch but seemed miraculously unharmed.<\/p>\n

So the depleted peloton prepared for a grueling uphill sprint. Brennan was brought to the front, but so was Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost). The sprint was initiated by Cl\u00e9ment Venturini (Unibet Rose Rockets), but he went too early. Corbin Strong (NSN) took over and managed to stay ahead of Magnier.<\/p>\n

Results of the 2026 Franco-Belgian CircuitAuthor: David Bavin-Hobbs <\/a>– [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corbin Strong won the Circuit Franco-Belge on Wednesday afternoon. The New Zealander from NSN Cycling came out on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,262562,262561,635,145101,82],"class_list":["post-728197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-circuit-franco-belge","tag-corbin-strong","tag-cycling","tag-nsn-cycling-team","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}