Philipsen storms to Gent-Wevelgem victory after late catch of Van Aert and Van der Poel

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) sprinted to victory at Gent-Wevelgem after his teammate Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), as well as Wout van Aert (VIsma | Lease a Bike) and Alec Segaert (Bahrain-Victorious), were caught by the peloton near the flamme rouge.

The great rivals Van der Poel and Van Aert went clear on the third and final ascent on the Kemmelberg and opened up an advantage of over a minute on the peloton. 

However, the final run-in suited those in the peloton, and there were plenty of teams with numbers to chase, and chase they did, closing the gap to within 15 seconds inside the final 5km.

Segaert managed to jump across to the duo inside the final five kilometres, before Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) pulled on the front of the peloton, making the catch by the flamme rouge. 

Philipsen was positioned well by his teammates and held the front position from the moment his nose hit the wind to win the fastest ever edition of the race ahead of Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike).

A new name and a new start town, but there were the same occupational hazards for the race formerly known as Gent-Wevelgem, namely an early run along roads exposed to North Sea winds before the denouement around the Kemmelberg.

The early break formed shortly after the race left the coastal town of Middelkerke, a staple of the old and much missed Three Days of De Panne, with Dries De Bondt (Jayco-AlUla), Frits Biesterbos (Picnic-PostNL), Julius Johansen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Camille Charret (Cofidis), Jules Hesters, Victor Vercouillie (Flanders Baloise), Hartthijs de Vries and Wessel Mouris (Unibet Rose Rockets) forging clear.

They quickly established a solid lead, building a buffer of six minutes by the time they hit De Moeren after 77km. Behind, there was tension on the run-in to that notorious section of road, with Tim Kielich (Visma) and Laurenz Rex (Soudal Quick-Step) among the fallers in a crash.

Shortly after De Moeren, an injection of pace from Visma and Red Bull saw the peloton split in two, with the favourites, including Van der Poel, Van Aert and Magnier, all safely in the front group.

The pace continued to ratchet up towards the first climb of the day, the Scherpenberg, with 105km to go, and the break’s lead was shrinking rapidly. By the first ascent of the Kemmelberg with 89km remaining, the gap was down to 40 seconds, a margin that just about stayed intact over the three gravel sectors of the Plugstreets that came soon afterwards.

Paul Magnier’s (Soudal Quick-Step) chances suffered a blow on the third section when a mechanical problem left him with a slow bike change and a long chase back to the front, but he made it back again with 61km left, in time for the second climb of the Kemmelberg.

Van Aert sprang into action once the climb began, delivering a long, seated acceleration that eventually saw the elastic snap behind. Van der Poel and Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) came with him, and they zoomed across the remnants of the break over the top.

The added impetus of Van Aert, Van der Poel and Vermeersch meant the leaders would have 45 seconds in hand on the bunch on the Baneberg with 40km remaining.

That set the race up for the big showdown on the final haul up the Kemmelberg. This time, it was Van der Poel who took the initiative, and Van Aert was the only man able to follow his surge. Van der Poel eked out a lead of a couple of bike lengths near the summit, but Van Aert resisted, and the pair began the descent with a lead of twelve seconds on Vermeersch and a minute on the peloton.

However, the route turned in favour of the peloton, and the gap began to whittle down with Red Bull pushing the pace at the front. 

Vermeersch was dangling at around 10 to 15 seconds behind the front duo, but the Belgian agonisingly couldn’t close the gap. With the peloton closing in, there was a blow for Lidl-Trek as Jonathan Milan found himself distanced from the bunch. 

Vermeersch was swept up by the peloton with 12km remaining, and the gap between the front duo and the peloton was 20 seconds with 10km to go.

Alec Segaert (Bahrain-Victorious) attacked from the peloton with just over 5km remaining, and this had a ripple effect as multiple riders tried to follow, and the cooperation was impacted. Segaert impressively bridged across to Van Aert and Van der Poel with 4km remaining, and the gap to the peloton remained around 15 seconds.

Filippo Ganna produced a spectacular turn on the front, scuppering the chances of the front trio, and the catch was made with the flamme rouge in sight, though Segaert snuck off and still held an advantage briefly, but when the sprint was launched, it was Jasper Philipsen who had too much for the rest.