Wevelgem (dpa) – Corona vortices, a fire near the goal and a victory by high-flyer Wout van Aert with an announcement: The 83rd edition of the Belgian cycling classic Gent-Wevelgem was accompanied by some turbulence.
The German Bora-hansgrohe team was not allowed to start, much to the annoyance of team boss Ralph Denk, as did the Trek-Segafredo team around defending champion Mads Pedersen (Denmark). From a sporting point of view, the race almost went as expected: the Belgian World Cup runner-up van Aert played his whole class in the final and won the sprint of a group of seven ahead of the Italians Giacomo Nizzolo and Diego Trentin after 248 kilometers.
At Bora, however, the success reports from Spain at the Tour of Catalonia reconciled. After the strong performance of youngster Lennard Kämna and the stage win on Friday, the three-time world champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia) contributed another day’s win on Saturday. The overall ranking, on the other hand, was clearly a matter for the Ineos racing team. The Briton Adam Yates won ahead of his teammates Richie Porte (Australia) and Geraint Thomas (Great Britain).
In Belgium, on the other hand, the Corona cases made the headlines. Although the UCI and the organizer had given the green light, the Bora team with sprint star Pascal Ackermann and the former Paris Roubaix runner-up Nils Politt were not allowed to go to the starting line. The background is the positive corona test by Matthew Walls last Thursday. A doctor had now imposed a seven-day quarantine on two-thirds of the team due to the Belgian coronavirus guidelines, whereupon team boss Denk reacted with incomprehension: “I am very disappointed and angry. A general practitioner from the region can put an entire team in one of the largest one-day races in the Block the world. “
The organizers, however, were powerless. “As much as we would have liked a complete field, we are not authorized to override an ongoing quarantine. It is also not up to an organizer like us to judge whether the quarantine is fair or not,” tweeted the organizer. Chef Tomas Van Den Spiegel.
Defending champion Pedersen and Milan-Sanremo winner Jasper Stuyven (Belgium) were also not allowed to start in the race after there was also a Corona case in the Trek-Segafredo team.
In addition to the corona exclusions, a fire in a recycling yard near the destination in Menen also caused further turbulence. The route had to be changed, which meant an additional 1100 meters had to be covered.
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