Yesterday Tom Van Asbroeck continued the excellent Topsport Vlaanderen start to the season when he won the third round of the Coupe de France, the Cholet-Pays de Loire. The former U23 Worlds bronze medalist was pleased to keep up the momentum of his young team which has clearly punched above its weight in the early part of the season.

Topsport Vlaanderen may only be a professional contentintal team, mostly made up of young Belgian riders, but in 2014 the team has mixed it up with the ProTeams. The squad won their two first races of the season, the GP d'Ouvertoure La Marseillaise and the first stage of Etoile de Besseges, and they put on an excellent showing in the Belgian opening weekend.

This weekend they have again been on a roll when the Coupe de France continued with the Classique Loire Atlantique and the Cholet-Pays de Loire. Kenneth Vanbilsen got close to the win on Saturday when he finished 2nd behind Alexis Gougeard and yesterday it finally succeeded for the young team when former U23 Worlds bronze medallist Tom Van Asbroeck won the 9-rider sprint to win in Cholet.

Van Asbroeck was joined by teammate Thomas Sprenger in the big 22-rider group that gradually got whittled down to just 9 riders in the end. Finally, he showed off his sprinting prowess when he held off Sebastien Delfosse and Sebastien Turgot to take the third big win for the team in 2014.

"Today, I was very motivated when I found myself at the front from the first kilometers," he told Directvelo. "We were two from the team in the break, with Thomas Sprengers. I'm really happy with this victory. 

"Our team is very strong this year. We had already won the first round of the Coupe de France, a stage in the Etoile de Bessèges and yesterday (Saturday) we took second place in the Classic Loire Atlantique ... I hope we will continue this momentum."