Along the way, several short hills had to be climbed, but they did not cause a major shift in the peloton. In the final, Edward Theuns was just ahead of the upcoming peloton. Groenewegen came quickly bridged the gap on the final straight line, but could not prevent the Belgian from taking the win.

The race in and around Haacht is compared to the World Championships’ course in Yorkshire. Next Sunday, Mike Teunissen and Amund Jansen will compete for the rainbow jersey on behalf of the national team of the Netherlands and Norway respectively. They tested their legs today in a race with a similar profile.

“I felt okay today”, Teunissen said. “The legs were pretty good, but not great. Today we mainly focused on the sprint with Dylan.”

Jansen attacked a few times in the hilly zone of the race, but to no avail. “The feeling was good. I put in a few major efforts, but unfortunately the race never became selective enough to really race. We lost each other a bit in the chaotic sprint, so we ended up without a podium place."