Arnaud De Lie triumphs after a power sprint in Binche-Chimay-Binche

Tuesday 1 October 2024 at 16:47

Arnaud De Lie has won the 37th edition of Binche-Chimay-Binche. The Belgian champion managed to remount Jasper Philipsen in a strong way and stayed ahead of Biniam Girmay and Milan Fretin in the day’s results on the sloping finish line.

A black hole after the road world championships? Cycling fans don’t have to fear that, because there are plenty of competitions on the program again this week. Take Binche-Chimay-Binche. This Walloon semi-classic – the closing event of the Belgian cycling season at UCI level – can count on a great field of participants every year: this year nine WorldTeams were present in Binche.

Tim Merlier, Arnaud De Lie, Jasper Philipsen, Biniam Girmay, Jordi Meeus, Jasper Stuyven… These top athletes decided to cross swords today between Binche and Chimay, on a tough local lap of 16.2 kilometers, which had to be completed five times in total. taken. As usual in Wallonia, it was constantly up and down and the wind often had free play on the wide roads. The only official obstacle were the ascending cobblestones of Pépinière, just under 900 meters from the finish.

Arnaud De Lie in the first hours of racing – photo: Cor Vos

Leading group of six, with two Dutchmen
But before that happened, the riders were given a long and uneven run-up. Six riders decided to take an attacking approach and formed the breakaway of the day. Rindert Buiter (VolkerWessels) and Stijn Appel (BEAT Cycling) were represented on behalf of the Netherlands. They were sealed by Belgian Michel Coppens (Cofidis), German Michael Schwarzmann (Israel-Premier Tech), Spaniard Iker Mintegi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Frenchman Adrien Maire (Tour de Tietema-Unibet).

However, this escape turned out to be short-lived, because with three local rounds to go, the six escapees were caught again. They proved unable to hold off a stampeding platoon, which was being attacked in turn. This started a new phase in the race, in which many riders tried to get away from it all, hoping to avoid a sprint. Dries De Bondt and then Alessandro Covi rode alone in the lead for a while, but these solos were nipped in the bud again fairly quickly.

Dries De Bondt tried in vain to avoid a sprint – photo: Cor Vos

Still a sprint
By catching Covi more than ten kilometers from the finish, the fast men could prepare for a sprint for victory. In the last kilometers the pace was extremely high and it turned out to be no longer possible to avoid a sprint. The biggest favorites for victory – Merlier, Philipsen and De Lie – started in a good position on the ascending cobblestones of Pépinière.

However, it was Danny van Poppel who played the surprise: the Dutchman attacked from very far, but Philipsen was attentive and was immediately on the wheel. The intended finisher of Alpecin-Deceuninck then decided to start the sprint himself, opened a gap and briefly seemed to be on his way to victory. However, that was not expected by De Lie.

The Belgian champion clearly had better timing, managed to recover Philipsen and skillfully dealt with Biniam Girmay and Milan Fretin. Philipsen fell silent in the last meters and finished ‘only’ fourth. Merlier was unable to make any progress in the sprint and therefore did not participate for the victory. De Lie is the successor on the honors list to the Italian Luca Mozzato, who was the strongest in the Belgian one-day race last year.

photo: Cor Vos

-

-

PREV Maccabi supporters attacked in Amsterdam, Israel denounces anti-Semitic violence – 11/08/2024 at 7:13 p.m.
NEXT Maccabi supporters attacked in Amsterdam, Israel denounces anti-Semitic violence – 11/08/2024 at 7:13 p.m.