Sunday May 5, 2024 at 5:03 PM
Alexander Kristoff has won the Eleven Cities Tour of Bruges. The Norwegian was the fastest in the sprint of a peloton that was thinned out by a fall. He referred Jarne Van der Paar (Lotto Dstny) and Rudy Barbier (Philippe Wagner/Bazin) to places two and three.
While big names such as Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen and Fabio Jakobsen participated in previous years, the field of participants for the Eleven Cities Tour of Bruges was a lot more modest this time. Gerben Thijssen was the top favorite in the sprinters’ race with start and finish in Bruges. The drivers had to cover almost 200 kilometers on mainly flat roads.
Leading group of six
In the initial phase a leading group of six emerged. Jelle Johannink (Tour de Tietema-Unibet), Mike Bronswijk (Diftar CT), Thimo Willems (VolkerWessels), Ceriel Desal (Bingoal WB), Arne Santy (Tarteletto-Isorex) and Kay De Bruyckere (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) joined forces collapsed and amassed a lead of almost three minutes. Thanks to the work of Intermarché-Wanty, Uno-X Mobility and Israel-Premier Tech, there was still one minute left with 55 kilometers to go.
At this point there were suddenly some attacks in the peloton, but it was difficult to open a gap on the flat roads. The pace of the sprinter teams was very high. Ultimately, Lars Vanden Heede (Soudal – Quick-Step Devo) and Guillaume Visser (Diftar) were able to get away. They tried to cross over to the leading group, where Santy had already had to drop out. But it turned out to be one potato hunt to be.
On to a sprint
So we started the final lap of 28.9 kilometers with five front runners. At that moment they were still defending for three quarters of a minute. A limited lead, but the adventurers held on for a long time. Only 3.5 kilometers from the end was Desal, the last escapee, called to order. The announced bunch sprint turned out to be unavoidable. Although, it was not a real bunch sprint. Due to a crash, only a small group sprinted for the win.
Alexander Kristoff started that sprint from far away. Jarne Van de Paar tried to remount him, but the strong Norwegian managed to maintain his effort and held off the young Belgian. Kristoff recorded his first victory of 2024.
photo: Cor Vos
