Max Walscheid sprinted to 8th at Omloop van het Houtland. Jens Debusschere won the race from the bunch sprint. The 71st edition of the Omloop van het Houtland took place today in Lichtervelde, Belgium.

The one-day race consisted of one large loop of 113.1km and eight laps on a relatively flat circuit of 10.8km, for a race total of 199.5km. After one hour of racing 4 riders succeeded to get away and in first instance the bunch was willing to let them go. At the moment the gap increased to 3’ the bunch accelerated and splits happened.

With 75km to go everything came back together and the fight could start over again. At the local circuit several attempts to break away were neutralized, with the last two escapees being caught back in the final kilometer. In the bunch sprint that followed Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal) was the fastest and Max Walscheid took 8th. Roy Curvers and Bert de Backer also finished in the top 20 in 17th and 20th place.

Coach Marc Reef explained: “We had some physical problems today. Tom [Stamsnijder] and Cheng [Ji] were sick this morning, Cheng tried it but abandoned early in the race. Carter [Jones] was suffering from stomach problems and had to abandon after 50km. Zico [Waeytens] had knee problems and Marcel [Kittel] was not feeling great.

“During the race the bunch split repeatedly and Roy, Max and Bert were in the first group every time. Halfway the race a good escape group of 8 riders got away with Max also there, but they were caught back with 30km to go. More attacks followed where Roy and Bert did a good job. The race ended in a bunch sprint where Max took 8th.”