Philippe Gilbert (BMC) proved that he is ready for the Ardennes classics when he won today's important warm-up race, Brabantse Pijl, in a sprint finish. The former world champion seemed to be out of the game when he had used a lot of energy to bridge across to an earlier move than ultimately proved successful but he still had enough left in the tank to stay with the best on the final Schavei climb before beating Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) an Tony Gallopin in the final 200m sprint to the line.

 

Three years ago Philippe Gilbert kicked off his impressive Ardennes campaign that included wins in all three Ardennes classics, off in the best possible way when he won the Brabantse Pijl in impressive fashion. Hence, it may be a good omen for the world champion that he added another win in the semi-classic to his palmares in the 2014 edition of the race.

 

Gilbert had changed his race program to skip all the Flemish classics and instead prepare himself for the Ardennes on the hills in the Basque Country. Having shown solid form in Spain, he lined up in today's race as the rider to beat but he suddenly found himself on the back foot inside the final 30km of the race.

 

A very strong group with the likes of Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp), Bjorn Leukemans (Wanty), and Mauro Finetto (Neri Sottoli) suddenly had a one-minute gap and Gilbert had to use all his teammates to bring them back within shouting distance. When his final teammates swung off the final time up the Hagaard climb with 20km to go, the former world champion had to take off on his own and he quickly reduced the gap to just 8 seconds.

 

However, he started to lose ground and it seemed that he had been caught in no man's land on the long flat straights that preceded the final climbs. However, he refused to give up and produced a fabulous performance to finally make the junction.

 

It all proved to be in vain though as CCC Polsat brought things back together and so Gilbert seemed to be out of the game. He fell a little back in the peloton to recover from his efforts while he hoped that none of the many attacks would have any success.

 

Orica-GreenEDGE kept things together for a sprint finish as Michael Matthews had made the selection and Gilbert moved back to the front just in time for the final Schavei climb to start. Like Matthews he covered all moves on the ascent and both were near the very front when they took the left-hand turn to hit the final 200m of false flat at the top.

 

Matthews hesitated for a few seconds while Gilbert promptly opened his sprint. The pair went head-to-head in a close battle, with Gilbert swinging slightly to the right to block the line for Matthews a bit. The former world champion narrowly held off his rival to take his second win in the event, raising his arms in celebration after the passage of the line.

 

Tony Gallopin (Lotto Belisol) bounced back from a very untimely puncture in the finale to take a distant third while Simon Geschke (Giant-Shimano) and an impressive Leukemans completed the top 5.

 

With the Brabantse Pijl now over, attention turns to the first of the Ardennes classics, Sunday's Amstel Gold Race, where most of today's animators will be back in action. Racing in Belgium resumes on Wednesday with the second Ardennes race, the Fleche Wallonne.

 

A hilly course

The 54th edition of the Brabantse Pijl followed a format much in line with the one that has been used for the race since 2010. The riders headed over 203km from Leuven to Overijse and after a mostly flat start, the course gradually got more hilly until the peloton hit the 23.4km finishing circuit. The riders were set to do three laps and as each of them contained 5 climbs, it made for a very difficult finale, with a total of 26 climbs spread throughout the course. The final climb, the Schawei, had its summit just 200m from the line from where it was a false flat all the way to the finish.

 

As it has been the case for most of the races in the Belgian classics season, the race took off under beautiful weather conditions, with only very little wind and plenty of sunshine. There was only one non-starter, MTN-Qhubeka's Martin Wesemann.

 

The break is formed

Most of the Belgian classics have taken off at a very rapid speed but in this year's Brabantse Pijl things were different. In fact, the break was established rather early when Mattia Pozzo (Neri Sottoli) and Matthias Brandle (IAM) took off. Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar) bridged across and it didn't take long for Giorgio Checchinel (Neri Sottoli), Christopher Williams (Novo Nordisk), and Kiel Reijnen (Unitedhealthcare) to also make the junction.

 

The peloton was pleased to get the race off to a calm start and they let the gap grow. As the riders approached the first climb, the Rue de Hal at the 57.1km mark, it reached 6.30. After 65km of racing, it reached a maximum of 6.50 but then the peloton started to stabilize the situation.

 

The chase gets organized

The gap went down to 6.10 but then the peloton again took the foot off the gas. With 95km to go, however, Garmin-Sharp, BMC and Orica-GreenEDGE decided that it was time to kick into action, with Ben King, Amael Moinard and Adam Yates significantly upping the pace on the run-in to the final circuit.

 

Yates punctured out of the chase work, leaving it to just King and Moinard to continue their hard riding. As they hit the Hertstratt on the finishing circuit, the gap was down to 4.50 while Reijnen, Williams and Cecchinel had to dig deep to stay with their companions.

 

The attacking starts

Lotto Belisol wanted to make the race hard and so Kris Boeckmans and Tosh van der Sande set a fierce pace on the climb that created several splits in the main group. Over the top, Petr Vakoc (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) attacked but he failed to get clear.

 

Instead, the peloton again found into a steady rhythm as King and Boeckmans found back to work, assisted by a Colombia rider. Nathan Brown (Garmin) also lend a hand but things started to get interesting when they hit the Ijsekderlaan.

 

Van Den Broeck makes the race hard

Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto) accelerated with Serry and King on his wheel and as they failed to get clear, the grand tour start continued riding hard on the front. Emanuele Sella (Androni) put in an attack but when King had closed it down, Van Den Broeck went back to work.

 

The escapees crossed the finish line for the first time as King again took over the pace-setting. Williams had now fallen off the pace, leaving just 5 riders in the front group.

 

Van Den Broeck escapes

Van Den Broeck attacked on the Schavei climb and was countered by Julien Vermote (OPQS). As the peloton exploded to pieces, Vermote and Van Den Broeck opened up a  big gap.

 

There was no longer any team controlling the peloton and so it was now a festival of attack. Arthur Vanoverberghe (Topsport) took off in pursuit and after being briefly joined by Jasper Stuyven (Trek), he got Julian Alaphilippe (OPQS) for company.

 

OPQS on the offensive

Pieter Serry (OPQS) and Jan Ghyselinck (Wanty) joined those two chasers . More riders tried to bridge the gap but they failed to make the junction.

 

On the Hertstraat, Alaphilippe upped the pace and rode away from all his companions. At the top, he waited for his teammate Serry and those two riders joined Vermote and Van Den Broeck when that dup decided to wait for them.

 

More attacks

Veuchelen and Vanoverberghe were both caught and so Wanty took over the pace-setting with Frederik Veuchelen. Marco Bandiera (Androni), Thierry Hupond (Giant), van der Sande, Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek), and Angelo Pagani (Bardiani) all made unsuccessful attacks as anarchy ruled.

 

Finally, the elastic seemed to snap when Marc De Maar (Unitedhealthcare) gave it a go. Simon Yates (Orica), Sander Armee (Lotto Belisol), Cesare Benedetti (NetApp), Stefan Denifl (IAM), Caleb Fairly (Garmin), Pieter Weening (Orica), Martin Kohler (BMC) almost joined him but finally it was a Topsport rider, Benedetti, Weening and Pim Ligthart (Lotto Belisol) who made the junction.

 

BMC kick into action

Kevin Reza (Europcar), Roy Curvers (Giant) and another three riders also joined the move while Fairly desperately tried to join them before falling back to the peloton. BMC was now one of the only big teams to have no rider in the escape groups and so they started to chase hard with Michael Schär, Stephen Cummings and Martin Kohler.

 

When Cummings rode hard on the Schavei, they brought back the Weening group and at the next passage of the line, they also caught the Van Den Broeck group. The peloton had now split to pieces as only 20-30 riders remained in the main group.

 

Reza takes off

Wout Poels (OPQS) upped the pace with Kevin Reza (Europcar) on his wheel and the latter countered the move to quickly open a big gap. As he was about to bridge the 30-second gap to the leaders, his teammate Quemeneur fell back to help him close the final small bit.

 

Serry and Gerrans took off in pursuit while the attacking continued behind them. A dangerous group with Leukemans, Armee, van der Sande, Ligthart, Haas and Romain Zingle (Cofidis) briefly had a gap but Topsport brought it back.

 

Leukemans plays his card

Instead, Leukemans attacked hard on the Hertstraat to quickly bridge across to Serry and Gerrans. Mauro Finetto (YellowFluo) also made the junction and they caught Quemeneur and Cecchinel who had been dropped by Reza's hard pace in the peloton.

 

Gilbert realized the danger and made a small acceleraion but as he was closely marked, he stopped his effort. Van der Sande had now jooined the Leukemans group that had picked up Quemeneur and left behind Checchinel, and that move joined the front just as Reijnen took off.

 

Giant and BMC start to the chase

Giant had missed the move and so they started to chase briefly but as the momentum went out, the attacking continued. Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM) went up the road and he was joined by Maciej Paterski (CCC), Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia), and Pagani to form a chase group.

 

While Quemeneur and later also Pozzo fell off the pace in the front group that had brought back Reijnen, Giant and BMC started to chase. The gap had now come up to one minute and with several riders up the road, they had to kick into action.

 

The gap comes down

Johannes Fröhlinger, Curvers, Moinard, Cummings, Peter Stetina (BMC), and Yannick Eijssen (BMC) all ride hard on the front and the gap now started to come down. With 28km to go, disaster struck for Gallopin as he suffered a puncture and had to chase hard to get back.

 

The penultimate time up Schavei, the gap was down to 20 seconds and so Leukemans set a fierce pace. Reijnen, Reza, Serry, van der Sande and Finetto all fell off the pace while Haas had to dig deep to stay with Leukemans, Gerrans and Brandle.

 

Gilbrt takes off

Finetto and Serry rejoined the leader while Geschke made a brief but unsuccessful attack from the peloton. The gap went back up to 30 seconds and when Eijssen and Stetina swung off at the bottom of the Hertstraat climb, Gilbert took off.

 

Jan Bakelants (OPQS), Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM), Dries Devenyns (Giant) and Davide Malacarne (Europcar) all tried to join him but they quickly fell back to the peloton while Gilbert opened a big gap. He quickly closed his deficit to 8 seconds but then started to lose momentum.

 

Lotto chase hard

Fabio Felline (Trek) and Martin Velits (OPQS) both made a small attack but they were brought back. No team had firepower to take control and so the attacking continued, with Geschke, Alaphilippe, Daryl Impey (Orica), Reichenbach, Poels, Matthews and Alex Howes (Garmin) all being part of the action.

 

Lotto Belisol were the big losers and so Van Den Broeck set a hard pace to bring back all attackers behind Gilbert. Meanwhile, the former world champion has rediscovered some energy and finally made the junction 12km from the finish.

 

CCC bring things back together

Gustav Erik Larsson (IAM) attacked from the peloton but now CCC had kicked into action. The Polish team brought back the Swede and 11km from the line, they caught the lead group as well, with Serry and Brandle being the final ones to get back into fold.

 

Nick Nuyens (Garmin), Fumeaux, Bakelants and Zico Wayetens (Topsport) made an immediate counterattack and as they were brought back, the attacking continued. Alexey Tsatevich, (Katusha), Poels, Larsson,Davide Rebellin (CCC), Waeytens, Gerrans, Pagani, Kristof Vandewalle (Trek) were some of the riders to give it a go but finally Orica took things into their own hands.

 

Orica control the situation

Gerrans and later Impey brought back all attackers and set a hard pace that made it impossible to get clear. On the penultimate climb, however, they could no longer control the situation as Geschke, Poels, Leukemans went on the attack but as Matthews marked everything closely, it came back together.

 

Howes gave is a go on the descent with Devenyns but when they were caught, he continued to set a hard pace on the front for Haas.He led the peloton onto the final climb of the Schavei with 1km to go.

 

Vermote and Arashiro make late attacks

Vermote made the first attack but Matthews and Haas were glued to his wheel. Gilbert closed to down, only to see Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) make a counterattack. Matthews was quick to respond and it was down to an elite selection to decide the race when they took the left-hand turn onto the false flat 200m from the line.

 

Matthews hesitated and Gilbert was quick to exploit the situation. The former world champion made a long sprint and narrowly held off his Australian rival to take his first win of the season.