Matthias Brändle (IAM) got his revenge over Rohan Dennis (BMC) who beat his Hour Record earlier this year, when the Austrian took a narrow win over the Australian in the Tour of Belgium prologue. Despite having a small deficit at the intermediate check, the IAM rider timed his ride perfectly to beat his rival by two seconds while Gaetan Bille (Verandas Willems) was 7 seconds further adrift in third. The performance was enough to give Brändle the early lead in the rac.

In early February, a frustrated Matthias Brändle lost his position as Hour Record holder when Rohan Dennis eclipsed his mark on the velodrome in Grenchen. Dennis’ record has later been broken by Alex Dowsett but there is no doubt that Brändle has been aiming for revenge over his Australian rival.

He got a chance today when the Tour of Belgium kicked off with a 6.86km prologue in Bornem where the two time trial specialists were the obvious favourites. They fully lived up to expectations as they turned out to be in a class of their own in a hotly contested battle.

Brändle’s teammate Martin Elmiger had led the stage for most of the day and had maybe started to dream about victory. However, it was immediately clear that his Austrian teammate was stronger as Brändle was clearly the fastest at the intermediate check. He maintained his speed all the way to the finish to fg0 9 seconds faster than the Swiss.

Brändle had been a relatively early started so he faced a nervous wait of almost an hour in the hot seat before he would find out whether his ride was good enough to win the stage. He faced his first big test when overall favourite Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) hit the course. The Belgian who has suddenly turned into a prologue specialist missed out on the mark though and could only make it into third.

Gaetan Bille has always been a bit of a prologue specialist and he created a small scare for Brändle when he passed the intermediate check in the second fastest time. However, he lost ground in the finale and even though he still set the second best time, he was a massive 9 seconds behind at the finish.

The final wave of riders were loaded with good time triallists but none of them were able to get close to Brändle’s mark before Dennis hit the course as the third last rider. The Australian was arguable the favourite to win the stage and when he set the best intermediate time, he was on track for a rare win. However, he lost ground in the final part and at the finish, he had been beaten by 2 seconds.

Neither Jasper de Buyst (Lotto Soudal) not Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Etixx-QuickStep) were any threat to Brändle who could take the biggest time trial victory of his career. He also takes the leader’s jersey with the same 2-second margin over Dennis.

Brändle will get the first chance to show the red jersey tomorrow in the first stage of the race which should be one for the sprinters. The flat stage has no categorized climbs and unless the wind splits the field, it should be a bunch kick on the tough uphill finishing straight in Knokke Heist.

A short opener

For the first time in a few years, the Tour of Belgium started with a prologue. The short 6.85km ride was held in the city Bornem and was mostly made up of straight roads, with only a few technical challenges, mainly towards the end of the stage.

The first rider on the start ramp was Olivier Pardini (Verandas Willems) who started his ride on a beautiful sunny day in Belgium. He stopped the clock in a very good time of 8.20 that would ultimately be enough to finish the stage in 25th.

Best time for Lampaert

The first rider to challenge the Verandas Willems rider was Victor Campenaerts (Topsport Vlaanderen) who missed out on the win by just fractions of a second. Robert Wagner (LottoNL-Jumbo) made it into third but missed out on the best time by 2 seconds.

It was Yves Lampaert (Etixx-QuickStep) who finally knocked Pardini out of the hot seat when he stopped the clock in 8.13 to go 7 seconds faster. That was enough to hold off Gijs van Hoecke (Topsport Vlaanderen) who was just 4 seconds slower in second.

Fantastic ride by Elmiger

One of the favouries Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) was far off the pace and Manuel Quinziato (BMC) also had a pretty poor ride to miss out on the provisional podium. Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) could only make it into fifth.

Berden De Vries (Roompot) was the next rider to move onto the provisional podium with a third place but it was Elmiger who got the attention when he took the lead with a big 10-second advantage. U23 world champion Campbell Flakemore (BMC) was no threat as he lost a massive 21 seconds.

Bonnet makes it into third

Gert Joeaar (Cofidis) made it into the top 10 before Jempy Drucker (BMC) did a great ride to move into second, 7 seconds behind the superior Elmiger. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) set the 5th best time and Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) just made it into the top 10.

Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport) did a surprisingly good time trial to move into fifth but he was quickly eclipsed by Jonas Vangenechten who made it two IAM riders in the top 4. However, everybody had their eyes on prologue specialist William Bonnet (FDJ) who lived up to expectations by setting the third best time.

Best time for Brändle

Brändle was now on the course and already at the intermediate check, it was clear that he would take the lead. At the finish he had gone 9 seconds faster than Elmiger and he easily held off the first challenge from Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Soudal) who set the 6th best time.

Wout van Aert (Vastgoedservice) had a fantastic ride to slot into 9th before David Boucher (FDJ) set the 6th best time. Van Avermaet confirmed his intentions in the race by setting the third best time but he had to see Bille go faster when the Belgian made it into second.

Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP) was faster than archrival van Aert as he set the ninth best time and even beat specialist Artem Ovechkin (Rusvelo) who moved into 10th. Dennis was now the final big threat and when he set the second best time, it was clear that Brändle would take the win. Van Keirsbulck ended the stage by slotting into ninth before the Austrian winner stepped onto the podium.