Alexys Brunel (TotalEnergies) pulled off a major coup in the GP Jean-Pierre Monseré, attacking out of the day's early breakaway and holding off the hard-charging peloton in Roeselare.
The 26-year-old powered through the final 6.7km solo, riding a slight cross-tailwind to victory by 23 seconds on the peloton. Stian Fredheim (Uno-X Mobility) sprinted in for second place, just ahead of breakaway rider Michiel Coppens (Beat Cycling Club), whom they caught at the line.
It was a massive confirmation for Brunel, who just returned to the pro peloton after two and a half years. He retired after racing half a season with UAE Team Emirates in 2022, shrugging off the pressure of professional cycling to focus on triathlon and national-level road races.
Brunel signed with TotalEnergies to begin his comeback this year and returned to the winning form that delivered him a stage win in the Etoile de Bessèges in his first pro race with Groupama-FDJ in 2020.
The 201.6-kilometre flat one-day race in West Flanders took place under sunny skies and fair temperatures with eight WorldTour teams toeing the line in Ichtegem - notably XDS Astana, desperately seeking UCI points, who sent a team to the 1.1-ranked race for the first time.
Victor Vercouillie (Team Flanders-Baloise), Federico Biagini (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Leo Doyle and Bogdan Zabelinskiy (Atom 6 Bikes-Decca Continental Team), Michiel Coppens (Beat Cycling Club) and Michiel van Vliet (Metec-SOLARWATT p/b Mantel) sparked the day's move in the first kilometres. Not long after, Brunel, also in the breakaway in the GP Criquielion on Saturday, joined them to make a seven-man escape group.
The breakaway opened up a gap of more than three minutes before the peloton had to stop for a level crossing, which gave the seven leaders a few more minutes. It wasn't until the halfway mark that the peloton brought the breakaway back to their previous gap of three minutes.
Their advantage stayed steady through to the final hour, when the WorldTour teams came forward to chase for their sprinters. As the gap dipped under one minute, Doyle and Van Vliet lost contact with the escape group. A surge from Brunel spat Zabelinskiy out, too.
A crash in the peloton disrupted the chase with 20km to go, and Brunel, Coppens and Vercouille gained a bit of time, heading into the final lap with 1:15 on the time board. The gap was still a rather healthy minute when Brunel attacked with 6.7km to go and powered away from his former companions.
The chase behind began to get desperate when Brunel had 50 seconds still with 4km to go, while Coppens and Vercouille weren't giving up. Intermarché-Wanty led the pursuit as Brunel began to carve out more time on his first two chasers, still holding 35 seconds with 2.5km to go.
It became clear the bunch had severely underestimated the attackers when Brunel went into the final 2km with a 25-second lead. They had the TotalEnergies rider in sight as he went under the red kite, but with a series of twists and turns, the peloton lost any chance of reeling Brunel in.
Coppens and Vercouille were caught by the sprinters just before the line, with Coppens continuing his effort to take third while Vercouille sat up and came through in sixth place.
Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Stage 1 kicks off with a 156.1km hilly, technical route in which the sprinters will struggle to contain the breakaways on the roads to Le Perray-en-Yvelines
