Season opener for Yannick Detant

Dutch rider Yannick Detant (Monkeytown Cycling Team) won 15th edition of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne juniors after a sprint from eight man group ahead of two French riders: Mathieu Rigollot (Auber 93) and Alain Riou (Club Bretagne Juniors).

Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2015 podium (photo: directvelo.com)

Results:
Full results: Kuurne Bruxelles Kuurne juniors 2015.

Race video

The race started with numerous crashes and for almost 30 kilometers there was no successful breakaway.

The peleton was driving very fast with tailwind from the start. The first attack made Danish rider Nikilaj Jeppe (Team Bravida Georgberg) but he was caught at the first hill of the day Edelare Top and immediately three more riders tried to get away: Bjorg Lambrecht (Avia WCup Cycling Team), Ronann Vivier (Team Nantes Atlantique) and Harm Vanhoucke (Young Cycling Team VZW). The leaders kept small gap on the peleton while Lambrecht was dropped so we had two guys in front. The leaders were joined by Danish rider Maximilian Hoffman (Pythonpro.com Team Champion System) and had 48" advantage on the big group. Before Kruisberg, the leading trio were joined by two strong riders: Frenchman Alan Riou (Brittany Club Juniors) and Ward Jaspers (Kon Balen BC).

With 53km to go the leaders were brought back. It was also the moment when crucial attack happened.

Eight riders: Mathieu Rigollot (Auber 93), Alan Riou (Club Bretagne Juniors), Rasmus Byriel Iversen (Team Bravida Georgberg), Yannick Detant (Monkeytown Cycling Team), Enzo Bernard (Pole Espoirs Pays de la Loire), Bjorg Lambrecht (Avia WCup Cycling Team), Loic Guillaume & Guillaume Millasseau (Argenteuil Van De Seine) jumped away just after the hardest climb of the day: Kruisberg. The leaders quickly gained over a minute gap and managed to keep it until the end. Behind them, many riders tried to attack from peleton including some big names like Danish duo from Pythonpro.com: Andreas Stokbro Nielsen and Maximilian Hoffman, Pavel Sivakov, Pascal Eenkhoorn and my pre race favorite Cedric Buellens but they only managed to stay in front of the peleton but never caught the leaders.

Detant beating Rigollot on the line (photo: Nieuwsblad.be)

In the final kilometers eight leaders attacked each other but the race was decided in a sprint which won Yannick Detant. Here's what the winners says after the race to Directvelo:

"It was a tough race. We managed to finish in a small group. In the end, I saw that everyone was tired. In the last five kilometers, I reacted to various attempts of attack. J 'have retained strength for the sprint. It worked. I'm happy to have won this prestigious race is naturally great when you see that Moreno Hofland won the race in 2009, but now I have to sit feet on the ground. "

Yannick Detant (photo: directvelo.com)

Runner up, Mathieu Rigollot was little bit disappointed:

"When you finish second, you certainly have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am of course happy to finish second on the first real race of the year, in addition to such a race, but on the other hand, This obviously leaves a taste of too little when you see that I launch my sprint a bit far. I could maybe win with 20 meters more. That's racing. I had staked everything on sprint and it was almost the right choice. "