Floris Gerts finished third and teammate Jempy Drucker was fifth Saturday for the BMC Racing Team at Primus Classic Impanis-Van Petegem. Gerts was on the attack in the final kilometers after following a move by eventual race winner Sean De Bie (Lotto Soudal).

"I was trying to keep the pace high in the peloton for Jempy when one of the Lotto guys (De Bie) jumped from behind," Gerts said. "I tried to get him back and looked back and saw we had a gap. But I made the mistake by taking over and riding also. I should not have done that because I had already been in the front group and was a little bit tired. When he attacked again, I could not follow."

De Bie soloed to the win one second ahead of Dimitri Claeys (Verandas Willems Cycling Team) and Gerts – who notched his best result since joining the BMC Racing Team as a stagiaire in August. Danny Van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing) took the bunch sprint for third ahead of Drucker, who had finished third himself on the last stage of the Vuelta a España less than a week ago.

"The aim today was for Jempy," BMC Racing Team Sport Director Geert Van Bondt said. "But we also knew we had to race aggressively because last year there was a group of 60 guys who went out from the start. So we knew we had to be active when the groups were going."

Earlier in the 199.2-kilometer race, BMC Racing Team's Alessandro De Marchi did just that. The Vuelta a España stage winner was part of a four-man breakaway that rolled away shortly after the start. Inside of 25 km to go, De Marchi was the last survivor of the escape. Just after he was reeled in, small groups began to go off the front repeatedly as the peloton was whittled down to about three dozen riders.

With about five kilometers to go, the BMC Racing Team had five riders organized at the front. But De Bie made what would be the decisive attack shortly afterwards and Gerts followed.