LItalian Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates) won the Super 8 Classic (1.Pro), a one-day cycling race held on Saturday from Brakel to Haacht over 197.6 kilometres. Starting 30 kilometres from the finish with a handful of riders, he finished solo with a lead of around twenty seconds over his closest pursuer, the Dutchman Rick Pluimers (Tudor).
Six men made up the day’s breakaway: Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB), Lars Craps (Flanders-Baloise), Kay De Bruyckere (Sauces Pauwels-Bingoal), Jens Reynders (Bingoal WB Devo), as well as the Dutchman Julius van den Berg (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and the Norwegian Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility). Reynders was dropped by his companions, and the group gradually broke up until it was caught around thirty kilometers from the finish.
Several riders tried to escape the peloton then, but only Filippo Baroncini was strong enough to open up a gap of around 25 seconds in the last 10 kilometres. Although Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) had lost contact, a small group tried in vain to catch the Italian.
Finally, it was Rick Pluimers who broke away from the group to take 2nd place. A few seconds later, the sprint was won by Baroncini’s teammate, the Portuguese Rui Oliveira. The winner of the day, the 2021 U21 world champion in Leuven and now 24 years old, takes his first victory among professionals.
Baroncini succeeds the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel in the event. Jordi Meeus is the last Belgian winner, in 2022.
