Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 5:04 PM
Benoît Cosnefroy has won the Brabantse Pijl 2024 from the sprint of an elite group of six. The French leader of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale was the fastest ahead of Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) and Tim Wellens (UAE Emirates). A strong Marijn van den Berg was also in that elite group, but he gambled on attack in the final kilometers and had to pay for that effort with a collapse and a seventh place.
Traditionally, the Brabantse Pijl started in Leuven for a 195 kilometer race through Flemish and Walloon Brabant, with a local lap around the finish point of Overijse. This circuit contained the cobblestones of the Hertstraat (0.7 km at 3.7%), the Holstheide (1 km at 5%), the difficult cobblestones of the Moskesstraat (0.5 km at 7%) and the S- bend (1.3 km at 3.7%), shortly before the arrival at the Brusselsesteenweg.
The flight of the day came in two stages. Jordi Warlop (Soudal Quick-Step) and Tomáš Kopecký (TDT-Unibet) jumped together to six other escapees: Alan Riou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Nicolas Debeaumarché (Cofidis), Jens Reynders (Bingoal WB), Dylan Vandenstorme (Team Flanders). -Baloise), Lorrenzo Manzin (TotalEnergies) and Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility). They did not get much more than a two-minute lead, because the peloton also wanted to race early.
photo: Cor Vos
Pre-final starts early
In addition to Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, Alpecin-Deceuninck, Israel-Premier Tech and UAE Emirates also showed up. What followed was a bunch sprint towards the first time of the Moskesstraat, meaning that the final started 70 kilometers from the finish. The early flight was also captured by skirmishes involving Quinten Hermans, Jelle Johannink and Pascal Eenkhoorn.
The trio of Alec Segaert-Antoine Huby-Andres Leknessund rode ahead for a while. Behind them, top favorite Tim Wellens joined in for the first time 50 kilometers from the finish. His acceleration on the Moskesstraat caused a separation in the peloton. Søren Kragh Andersen and Axel Laurance made the jump from that group to the Segaert group, after which Benoît Cosnefroy, Dries De Pooter, Frank van den Broek, Lawson Craddock, Stephen Williams and Antonio Morgado also joined.
Van den Berg along with Wellens and Teuns
EF Education-EasyPost missed the trick and drove the leading group back, which allowed leader Marijn van den Berg to join Dylan Teuns and Tim Wellens on the penultimate climb of the Moskesstraat. The three did not get much of a lead, but the chase also got off to a difficult start. In this way they started the final lap around Overijse with a 20 second lead.
photo: Cor Vos
Michael Matthews and Dries Van Gestel made a frantic attempt on the last Hertstraat, but that had little effect. The executioner’s work by Alpecin-Deceuninck and Decathlon AG2R had more effect, because at the foot of the Moskesstraat the gap was halved. Van den Berg ensured that he came out ahead with Wellens and Teuns, but a strong Hermans was able to join just after the top. Not far behind, a second elite group followed.
Zevental will fight for victory
From that group, Cosnefroy managed to make the leap to the leading group at Holstheide, resulting in five front runners starting the last seven kilometers. However, the gap was small enough for Joseph Blackmore and Jefferson Cepeda to make the jump from the background, making the final even more exciting.
Marijn van den Berg seemed to have the fastest sprint of the seven leaders, but the driver from De Meern did not wait for that. Two kilometers before the finish he took advantage of a moment of silence in the leading group, after which he took a serious lead in the S-bend. It was Blackmore’s false flat spur that closed the gap with Van den Berg, who came to a complete standstill.
In the sprint that followed, Blackmore pulled ahead of Teuns, but he was no match for Benoît Cosnefroy’s vicious sprint. The Frenchman was by far the fastest and eventually took the podium with Teuns and Wellens. Blackmore finished fourth, ahead of Cepeda and a stagnant Hermans. Ten seconds later, Van den Berg became seventh in the results.
photo: Cor Vos
