Breakaway comes up just short as De Lie wins Famenne Ardenne Classic for the third time

Arnaud De Lie has won a highly dramatic edition of the Famenne Ardenne Classic on Sunday. In a nail-biting finale, three remaining breakaway riders looked set to beat the peloton — but thanks to a strong team performance from Lotto-Intermarché, De Lie was able to deliver on his favourite's role.

The race, run over 186.7 kilometres around Marche-en-Famenne, served as a tasty finale after the Ardennes Classics. The local circuits repeatedly served up the Côte de Roy and the climb at Marloie — and it was precisely that repetition of short hills that made the race difficult to control.

Six riders formed the main breakaway of the day. Stijn Appel, Filippo D'Aiuto, Ryan Gal, Florian Hochuli, Daniel Årnes and Maxence Place held a gap of just under two minutes on the peloton with 50 kilometres remaining. Gal and Appel had already made their presence felt at the intermediate sprints along the way, while Hochuli also took one — before fading towards the finale.

Behind them, the teams with fast men and punchers had to organise themselves. They managed it reasonably well, while at the front the lead group slowly but surely began to fall apart. Eventually three riders stayed clear longer than Appel, who was caught by the peloton with 15 kilometres to go.

At that point the gap was just over half a minute, with Mexican rider Edgar David Cadena making a solo effort to close it. With just over ten kilometres to go there was another crash, but the peloton was still not closing the gap.

So D'Aiuto, Gal and Place — the three survivors out front — still had over half a minute in hand with six kilometres to go, as the peloton appeared to have fallen asleep. Cadena was still caught between the two groups, but he too was not making rapid inroads. For a long time Lotto-Intermarché had been setting the pace at the front of the peloton, but as time ran out, Alpecin-Premier Tech and TotalEnergies also moved up.

Yet despite Cadena being caught, it all looked like it might be too late. In a breathless finale the breakaway seemed on course to hold on — but the peloton got there just in time. In the final hundred metres the escapees were swept up, and in the sprint De Lie was by far the fastest. It was the Belgian's third win in the Belgian one-day race. Tibor Del Grosso finished fourth.