Matthew Brennan powers to emphatic Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne win

Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike) claimed an emphatic victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in a reduced bunch sprint, beating Luca Mozzato and Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling) to the line after an attritional edition of the race.

The sequence of attack and counter-attack in the hill zone saw the race splinter into shards and the flat run-in to Kuurne was intense, too, with the bunch breaking into echelons on several occasions.

Brennan was assured and at the front in every phase of the race, however, and he survived the winnowing process that saw men like Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) distanced long before the finale.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) did make the front group after an aggressive showing on the cobbles and hills, but he never seemed to recover from a late bike change and he made no impact in the sprint, where Christophe Laporte delivered a perfect lead-out for Brennan.

The result was never in doubt once Brennan hit the front as he scorched to his second win of the new season with three lengths to spare. After an ill-starred outing at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, this was, from start to finish, a reminder of Brennan’s aptitude for racing in this corner of the world.

After a rapid start, it took almost an hour of racing for a break to forge clear, with Johan Jacobs (Groupama-FDJ United), Roger Adria (Movistar), Matis Louvel (NSN Cycling), Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla), Frits Biesterbos (Picnic-PostNL), Storm Ingebrigtsen (Uno-X) and Cole Kessler (Modern Adventure) opening a maximum advantage of four minutes as the race sped towards the hill zone around the midpoint.

A crash in the peloton with a shade over 100km to go saw a number of fallers, with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) the worst affected. The Belgian champion abandoned with a suspected broken collarbone.

The race ignited once it made contact with the hills, with Lotto Intermarché giving Arnaud De Lie a striking lead-out into the climb of Le Bourliquet. It proved an illusion, however, with De Lie soon on the back foot as the intensity spiked on each successive climb.

Philipsen showcased his condition when he hit the front on the Mont-Saint-Laurent, with Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) the only man able to follow, while Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) was distanced after a puncture.

On the Kruisberg, Philipsen was again to the fore, and his effort created an elite group of eight over the top, with Brennan among them, though the race was stitched back together again by Lotto over the other side.

The staccato rhythm continued on the remaining climbs, with Dylan van Baarle (Soudal Quick-Step) dragging a group clear on Mont Trieu, but the bunch would reform again before the final ascent of the Kluisberg. 

The race would split all over again on the ascent, with Brennan, Van Baarle and Trentin part of a group of strongmen that bridged up to the break with 53km to go, but Decathlon-CMA CGM and Alpecin-Premier Tech struck up an alliance to claw them back soon afterwards.

With no climbs remaining, a bunch finish looked inevitable, but the exposed roads and crosswinds meant that there was still the prospect of splits on the road to Kuurne. Visma had numbers in the front, and Christophe Laporte duly forced an echelon with 49km to go that had Brennan and Philipsen aboard.

That triggered a desperate scramble behind, with the group eventually swelling to 20 riders, with Visma driving on the pace. It was frantic stuff. Philipsen punctured out of the front group but he quickly commandeered Edward Planckaert’s bike, and he was still aboard that replacement machine when the front two echelons merged with 35km to go. 

In the meantime, young Héctor Álvarez (Lidl-Trek) enjoyed a brief but spirited cameo off the front that lasted until the cobbles of the Beerbosstraat. From there, the reduced peloton just about stayed intact to the local lap in Kuurne, where Philipsen finally got back aboard his own bike.

After his flexes on the hills, Philipsen looked an obvious favourite, but he was poorly positioned in the final kilometre, and he made no impression on a sprint that was dominated by Brennan.