Sean De Bie continued what has been a great few weeks for Lotto Soudal by taking a surprise solo win in the Primus Classic Impanis-Van Petegem. After making it into a 25-rider main group in a very aggressive race, he attacked with less than 5km to go and after dropping Floris Gerts (BMC), he narrowly held off the peloton to take the second win of his career. Dimitri Claeys (Verandas Willems) and Gerts were in pursuit and completed the podium.

In the last few years, Lotto Soudal have often complained about a lack of victories but things have definitely changed in 2015. Going into today’s Primus Classic Impanis-Van Petegem, they had already won 37 times and most importantly lots of riders have contributed to the tally that also includes several WorldTour wins.

The last week has been incredible for the team after André Gripel kicked it off with a win in the penultimate stage of the Tour of Britain. Since then, Tim Wellens and Jens Debusschere have won the GP Montreal and GP de Wallonie respectively and it could have been even better if Greipel and Debusschere had not been relegated in the final stage of the Tour of Britain and Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen after crosiing the line first.

Today it was a youngster that contributed to the success when Sean De Bie became a surprise winner of the Primus Classic, taking the second win of the season and his short career. At the end of a hard of aggressive race, he made use of the lack of domestiques in the 25-rider group to launch a strong attack and that was enough to take a solo victory.

After the final climb with 23km to go, the early break had been caught and it was raining with attacks until Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty) finally managed to escape. The Belgian got a 5-second advantage which he worked hard to maintain against a 25-rider peloton that was led by Bretagne and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar).

The small advantage allowed Pim Ligthart (Lotto Soudal) and Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) to bridge the gap and a huge effort by Floris Gerts allowed the youngster to also join the action. With no organized chase, the gap quickly went out to 15 seconds until Jesper Asselman started to work for Roompot.

With 15km to go, the Dutchman got assistance from a Bora-Argon 18 rider and the Europcar trio of Voeckler, Vincent Jerome and Alexandre Pichot and even though the latter two quickly stopped their work, the gap was slowly coming down. Things didn’t get much better for the front quartet when Brambilla got an advantage in a turn and tried to make a solo move.

The quartet came back together but their advantage was down to 7 seconds with 11km to go. Two kilometres later it was only 5 seconds and with 6km to go, Voeckler, Asselman and the Bora rider successfully completed their chase.

As the pace went down, Sander Cordeel (Vastgoedservice) and De Bie took off but BMC wanted a sprint finish for Jempy Drucker. Hence, they hit the front with Rick Zable, Kilian Frankiny, Damiano Caruso, Floris Gerts and Drucker and maintained a fast pace.

Nonetheless, de Buyst made a move with Cordeel with 3km to go and this was enough to make Caruso blow up after Zabel and Frankiny had ended their work. When the duo was caught, De Bie tried again and this time he got Gerts for company, meaning that BMC stopped their work.

Immediately, they got a solid gap while Bram Tankink started to chase for Lotto NL. One from Wanty took over but as he didn’t get any help, the gap started to grow.

Gerts was clearly tired and with 1.5km to go, he was dropped and picked up by Dimitri Claeys who had attacked from the peloton. Meanwhile, it was still Wanty leading the chase but they were not getting any closer as they passed the flamme rouge.

The chase never got organized and so De Bie managed to hold the group at bay to take the first one-day win of his career. Danny Van Poppel (Trek) launched a long sprint and caught Claeys and Gerts on the line. However, he was just too late and had to settle for fourth, with the Verandas Willems rider taking second.

The series of Belgian one-day races will continue next Wednesday when the sprinters are expected to shine in the Omloop het Houtland.

11 climbs

The 2015 edition of the Primus Classis Impanis-Van Petegem was held on a 199.2km course that brought the riders from Brakel to Haacht. Most of the course was flat but the riders would tackle 11 short hellingen along the way, most of them in the second half. The final four of those were located inside the final 50km, with the final challenge, Boskee, coming 22.1km from the flat finish.

It was cloudy and dry when the riders gathered for the start, knowing that rain had been forecasted for the second half of the race. After an aggressive start, Julien Morice (Europcar), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), David de la Cruz (Etixx-QuickStep) and Brian van Goethem (Roompot) managed to get clear and the slowly started to build an advantage.

The chase gets organized

For most of the race, it hovered around 4-5 minutes and with 100km to, it had gone out to 5.20. It was down to 3.30 as they entered the final 65km under torrential rain as Topsport Vlaanderen, CCC, Sander Armee (Lotto Soudal) and Rick Flens (LottoNL) were now working on the front.

The gap was slowly coming down and was only 2.10 as they entered the final 10km. The wet roads caused lots of punctures and the CCC rider ended his work on the front.

Lots of crashes

A couple of crashes brought down Dries De Boundt, Carter Jones, Jeff Peelaers and a LottoNL rider which prompted Flens to stop his work. Hence, it was Armee and a Topsport rider on the front with 42km to go where the gap was 1.45 and the sun had come out.

The CCC rider came back to take one final turn before Lotto Soudal took complete control with Armee leading his teammates. That’s when they hit the 9th climb just 1.25 behind the front group and now the attacking started.

The attacking starts

A Verandas rider was first to try but was closely marked by Ligthart. Instead, it was Van Poppel who made a strong solo move to crest the summit alone while riders were getting dropped from the splintering peloton.

A trio with Frederik Backaert (Wanty) made the junction before Tankink and Veuchelen were among the riders to join the action. However, the move was caught and the next attacks from Verandas, Tankink, Bora, Timo Roosen and Lighart were not successful either.

De Marchi takes off

When the front group hit the penultimate climb with 35km to go, the gap was only 35 seconds and this prompted De Marchi to go hard. Morice was the first to get dropped and later Van Goethem and finally also De La Cruz lost contact to.

In the peloton, Verandas, Van Poppel, Armee, Drucker, Bjorn Leukemans were all attacking and it was van Poppel, Leukemans and Drucker that briefly got clear. However, gradually more riders joined them until around 30 riders had gathered. Morice had been caught while De La Cruz and Van Goethem had joined forces.

De Marchi is caught

Antwan Tolhoek tried a solo move but both he and the two chasers were caught with 29km to go. Here De Marchi was still 15 seconds ahead and the attacking continued, with Cordeel and Koen De Kort all aprt of the action.

Van Poppel attacked again, caught De Marchi and was joined by Brambilla, Drucker and Arnaud Gerard before Leigthart also made the junction. Moments later, however, a 25-rider group gathered.

Gerard tried again before Warren Barguil, De Bie, Preben Van Hecke, Voeckler and Martin Velits also made unsuccessful attempts. However, it was Veuchelen who finally made the difference to start the exciting finale.