Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Bob Jungels outlasted a fierce chase from the peloton in the closing kilometres to win the 201.1km Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in Belgium today.
The Luxembourgian soloed to victory, beating Team Sky’s Owain Doull by 12 seconds. Direct Energie’s Niki Terpstra rounded out the podium.
Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Bob Jungels celebrating moments after winning the 201.1km Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne today. Photo: Tiz-cycling.racing
Jungels and his fellow escapees – Oliver Naesen, Sebastian Langeveld, Davide Ballerini and Magnus Cort – set the tone in the last quarter of the race.
The five riders worked well together at the head of affairs, swopping leads and maintaining their advantage over the chasing group.
They held a 23-second lead on the penultimate climb up Holstraat with 57km remaining. The peloton were 1:10 behind.
The front five continued to cooperate as they extended their lead to 32 seconds over the chasers and 1:12 over the peloton.
With 46km remaining the peloton hauled in the chasing group as the breakaway riders held a one minute lead.
Their lead dwindled slightly to 40 seconds with 30km left, but they continued to work together as a cohesive unit.
Bora-Hansgrohe and Jumbo-Visma riders increased the pace at the head of the bunch as they pursued the breakaways.
With 17km left, Jungels made his decisive attack from within the break to surge ahead, while Cort dropped back.
The rest of the breakaway riders upped their tempo in an attempt to catch Jungels, but they were unable to match the Luxembourgian’s surge.
Langeveld, Naesen and Ballerini were caught by the peloton with nine kilometres remaining as Jungels held a 26-second solo lead.
The peloton chased aggressively over the last five kilometres, narrowing Jungels’s lead to 18 seconds.
However he managed to hold his own to claim QuickStep’s second Classic victory in as many days.
