Tom van Asbroeck nearly reached the top three of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne this Sunday. The young sprinter delivered a very strong mass-sprint in which only Mark Cavendish, Alexander Kristoff and Elia Viviani finished in front of him.

“When you look at the riders who defeated me today, I’m allowed to be satisfied with my result,” Tom Van Asbroeck said after the race. “Those three riders are a little bit stronger and a lot more experienced than me. Especially the experience made the difference. I was also a little unlucky because, with 1,5 kilometres to go, I lost the slipstream of Robert Wagner. Because of that, I had to make my own way to the front. That was tough.”
 

In the hill section of the race, a dangerous breakaway started with twenty riders in it. Sep Vanmarcke and Maarten Wynants were two of them. The Oude Kwaremont was the part of the race where the breakaway was created. Vanmarcke showed his strength at that climb.

“Sep showed everyone that he is right on schedule,” said Nico Verhoeven. “It’s clear that he always shows up in the classics and that he is one of the strongest classics’ riders. It’s a great confirmation that Maarten and he were in the leading group. Maarten is at a level that is high enough to reach the finale of a classic with Sep and that gives us a good feeling.”

After the hill section, Vanmarcke was hesitating about doing a late attack, but under these circumstances, that would’ve been futile.

“After the first round, I saw that there wasn’t enough crosswind for an attack in the last kilometres,” the strong Belgian analysed after the race. “But I’m happy with the fact that I proved to be in good condition, in general. Today, I was a little bit worse than yesterday, but still good enough. It’s no surprise that I am not at my best after a hard day like yesterday. Everyone has that problem, so I was able to show off at the Oude Kwaremont.

"In the leading group, a couple of riders saved themselves. The sprinters wanted to stay fresh but I also wanted to save me. I was a bit tired after the Omloop but had good legs. Unfortunately, I could not ride the finale. I'm still surprised that it was a sprint because I expected more crosswind. I had a good feeling this weekend and I have shown that I am very good."

A mass-sprint was inevitable in the end. Van Asbroeck’s team leader told him, on time, that it would be all for him in that sprint. 

“The last round was a true team effort,” Van Asbroeck explained.“All of them kept me out of the wind. I had a quick chat with Sep and he told me that he was going to give it all for me. That was just perfect. I was at the right place at the right time. I made a little mistake myself when I lost Robert’s slipstream. I had to pay for it in the end, the fourth place was the highest I could reach today.”