The Belgian Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) won the Tour de Louvain on Sunday by winning the sprint ahead of his breakaway companion, the Czech Zdenek Stybar.
Campenaerts, 30, signed his first success in a one-day race on this occasion, he who had made himself known to the general public by seizing the world record for the hour (55.089 kilometers) on April 16, 2019, a brand that still holds.
This Tour de Louvain, also called GP Jef Scherens (named after the seven-time world speed champion in the 1930s/40s), was played on the penultimate of the six laps of the local circuit: about twenty kilometers of the line, Stybar and Campenaerts gave way to the peloton.
The Czech started the sprint from afar, pulled up on the thread by the double European time trial champion (2013 and 2018).
The Norwegian Alexander Kristoff, 3rd, settled the sprint of a peloton in which figured Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe.
The double world champion was making his return to competition in Louvain (on the course of his world title last year) after having given up taking the start of the 3rd stage of the Tour de Wallonie on July 25, victim of the Covid -29.
The Quick-Step rider must participate from August 9 to 11 in the Tour de l’Ain, which he already won in 2014 – the first victory of his professional career – before the Vuelta (from August 19) then the World Championships at the end of September in Australia.
Classification
1. Victor Campenaerts (BEL/LOT), 199 km in 4:38:47.
2. Zdenek Stybar (CZE) mt
3. Alexander Kristoff (NOR) at 20.
4. Jasper De Buyst (BEL) m.t.
5. Jenthe Biermans (BEL) m.t.
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