This rainy edition of the Brussels Cycling Classic was won by Dylan Groenewegen (Roompot) in a really tight sprint. He beat Roy Jans and Tom Boonen in a sprint of a reduced peloton.

After 40 kilometres five riders escaped from the bunch: Fominykh, Malaguti, Wallays, Van Melsen and Delfosse. They never had more than 4’30” advantage. On the hills Tony Gallopin tried to get things moving twice, but Etixx-QuickStep controlled the race and caught the leaders. Also Frederik Backaert and Daan Myngheer rode a few kilometres in front of the strongly reduced peloton, but it was a sprint after all. Lotto Soudal rider Kenny Dehaes finished ninth.

“Without André Greipel, who won the two previous editions, we had to think of another plan," sports director Kurt Van de Wouwer: said. "With a rider like Tony Gallopin you can choose to attack and he tried to get away twice in the zone of the Alsemberg. But he didn’t immediately get the right support and it was obvious that Etixx-QuickStep did all they could to keep the group together so Tom Boonen could sprint.  I thought it was 80 to 90 per cent certain that we’d get a sprint.

"We took Kenny to the front during the preparation of the sprint, but when the sprint started he was positioned a bit too far back. Groenewegen is a young talent and definitely not slow, but I had hoped we could end up higher in the ranking.”