Having performed strongly in races like the Tour of Turkey and the Criterium du Dauphiné, Kris Boeckmans seems to be moving up in the internal sprint hierarchy at Lotto Belisol. Today he again put his progress on show when he finished second in Halle-Ingooigem but admitted that there was little to do against winner Arnaud Demare.

After joining Lotto Belisol at the start of the season, Kris Boeckman mainly worked as a domestique in his first races. However, he got his chance to sprint for himself in the Tour of Turkey and put in a number of encouraging performances that earned him the chance to be the protected sprinter in the Criterium du Dauphiné.

The mountainous race only offered one sprint opportunity for the Belgian and he was just centimetres from beating Nikias Arndt in stage 3 after having finished very strongly. In the absence of defending champion Kenny Dehaes, he was back in a leadership role for today's Halle-Ingooigem and again showed his strength by finishing second behind Arnaud Demare.

Boeckmans was pleased with the result and after admitting the superiority of the French super sprinter, he turned his attention to Sunday's road race nationals in Wielsbeke.

"I am very satisfied with this second place," he told Directvelo. "The condition has been growing nicely since the Tour of Turkey. The team worked well for me in the last two kilometers, it's great. Against a rider like Démare, there is nothing to do. It is really hard. 

"We'll see how the race will pan out on Sunday, I do not know my role. After Wielsbeke, I take a little rest."