Jelle Wallays finally took his first win for Lotto Soudal when he completed a fantastic solo ride in the GP Cerami in successful manner. After a hard and selective race, he attacked in the first part of the final lap of the 13.8km finishing circuit and managed to hold Jerome Baugnies (Wanty) off by 7 seconds. Christopher Latham (Wiggins) beat Wout van Aert (Crelan) in the sprint for third.

In 2014, Jelle Wallays delivered a major surprise by winning Paris-Tours in a two-rider sprint against Thomas Voeckler. One year later he confirmed his huge potential by winning Dwars Door Vlaanderen and that made him a hot name on the transfer market.

Lotto Soudal won the battle for his signature but the first part of the year has been difficult for the talented Belgian. A 9th place in the 3 Days of De Panne was a highlight but he never reached his best form for the classics.

Wallays hopes to turn things around in the second part of the season and today he confirmed that he is on track. With one of his trademark attacks, the Belgian soloed to victory in today’s GP Cerami which marks the start of the final part of the season for many riders.

The 2016 edition of the GP Cerami was held on a 199.9km course that brought the riders from Saint-Ghislain to Frameries. The race could be split into two parts: a hilly opening section and three laps of a finishing cicuit. The first 158.5km saw the riders travel from the start to the finish. Along the way, they tackled some of the most famous hellingen in Belgium, with La Houpe, Les Plachettes, Muur van Geraardsbergen, Dendeeroordberg and Cois d’Erbisouel all featuring on the course. The final part of the race consisted of three laps of a 13.8km finishing circuit. It was mainly flat but the final 1.5km were uphill. Most of the time the gradient was less than 4% but there are some steeper sections at the bottom and inside the final 500m.

158 riders gathered for the start on a brutally hit day in Belgium where the temperature reached 33 degrees. That didn’t dampen the attacking spirit as the start was very fast with lots of attacks. The first to build an advantage of 10 seconds was a 12-rider group but it was all back together after 35km of racing.

At the 44.5km mark, Tom Devriendt (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Alexander Kamp (Team Stolting), Christophe Premont (Verandas Willems), Sean Lake (Avanti Isowhey Sport) and Jimmy Turgis (Roubaix Lille Metropole Dargent) took off and they quickly got an advantage of 45 seconds. It was 1.35 at the top of the second climb and 3.20 after 60km of racing.

Unsurprisingly, the peloton split on the Muur where the gap was brought down to 2.13 and three separate groups were formed. At the top of the fourth climb, the first group was just 1.35 behind the leaders and the fast pace was an invitation to attacks. Lots of riders tried before Steven Tronet (Fortuneo Vital Concept), Antoine Warnier (Wallonie-Bruxelles) and Nicola Genovese (D'Amico Bottecchia) escaped and they quickly made the junction.

A regrouping took place and at the 80km mark, the peloton was 2.38 behind the leaders. The gap even went out to 3.40 at the end of the second hour where the average speed was a brisk 43.2km/h. Meanwhile, Gerald Ciolek (Stölting) abandoned.

Eddie Dunbar (Axeon) used the slower pace to try to bridge the gap and with 100km to go, he was just twp minutes behind. The peloton was in no hurry as they had turned into a headwind and were now 5.25 behind.

The peloton upped the pace as they approached the final climb which they hit with a deficit of 3.50. Dunbar was losing ground but he did well on the climb to reduce his deficit from 3.20 to 1.50.

The peloton suddenly accelerated in a windy section and was split in two. The first group quickly caught Dunbar and opened an advantage of 20 seconds. This time they didn’t slow down and so the gap to the leaders was down to just 1.30 with 75km to go.

The 49-rider first bunch increased their advantage over the second group to 55 seconds. The group consisted of Boonen, De La Cruz, Meersman, Trentin, Van Keirsbulck (Etixx-Quick Step), Le Gac, Sarreau, Vaugrenard (FDJ), Boeckmans, Lightart (Lotto-Soudal), Van Melsen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Vallee, Brun, Hutarovich (Fortunéo-Vital Concept), Clarke, Earle, Lowndes, Phelan, Scully (Drapac Professional Cyclng), Pedersen, Carbel (Team Stolting), De Tier, Van Lerberghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Van Ginneken, Van Goethem (Roompot Oranje Peloton), De Winter, Ista (Wallonie-Bruxellles), Dunbar, Neilands (Axeon-Hagens Berman), Asgreen, Pedersen (Team Trefor), Giacoppo (Avanti Isowhey Sport), Van Aert, Robert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice), Dibben, Latham, Patten (Team Wiggins), Chinello (D'Amico Bottecchia), Leveau, Pereira, Moncomble (Roubaix Metropole Europeenne de Lille), Vermeersch, De Bondt, Van Breussegem (Verandas Willems), De Rooze, Van Den Brande (Veranclassic-AGO), Hemroulle, Mertz, Palm, Taminiaux (Color Code - Arden Beef).

When the gap was down to just 30 seconds, Premont attacked from the front group and he was soon joined by Lake. The rest of the group was brought back by the peloton which slowed down and allowed a regrouping to take place.

Premont and Lake pushed the gap out to 45 seconds but then started to lose ground again. At the first passage of the line, they were just 20 seconds ahead of the 80-rider peloton.

Julien Loubet (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) took off and quickly bridged the gap but the trio was only 11 seconds ahead. That opened the door for new attacks and with 32km to go, a 14-rider group with Yves Lampaert (Etixx-Quick Step), Olivier Le Gac (FDJ), Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal), Christophe Premont (Verandas Willems), Sean Lake (Avanti Isowhey Sport), Julien Loubet, Yauheni Hutarovich (fortunéo-Vital Concept), Adam Phelan (Drapac), Sven Reutter (Team Stolting), Ludwig De Winter (Wallonie-Bruxelles), Justin Oien (Axeon-Hagens Berman), Mads Rahbek (Team Trefor), Rob Ruijgh (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) and Iltjan Nika (D'Amico-Bottecchia) had gathered. However, they were brought back just as they started the second lap of the circuit.

That set the scene for new attacks but despite numerous attempts, no one could get clear before a 29-rider group managed to open an advantage of 20 seconds. They started the final lap with an advantage of 22 seconds over and 11-rider chase group.

Just after the passage of the line, Wallays made his move and he already had an advantage of 15 seconds with 7km to go. Jerome Baugnies took off in pursuit but he was not getting any closer. With 4km to go, he was trailing Wallays by 27 seconds.

As Wallays hit the climb to the finish, the gap was coming down and it was only 13 seconds with 1.5km to go. However, he dug deep to stay clear, crossing the line with an advantage of 7 seconds over Baugnies, with Chris Latham and Wout van Aert escaping from the peloton to take fourth and fifth respectively. Tim Kerkhof (Roompot) won the sprint for fifth.

With the GP Cerami done and dusted, attention turns to the Tour de Wallonie. The five-day stage race starts on Saturday.