Dylan Groenewegen secures Unibet Rose Rockets' first WorldTour victory at the Tour of Bruges

“It's going to be war from the start,” Jasper Philipsen, one of the favourites for Alpecin-Premier Tech, said before the start. “There is a 110 percent chance of echelons,” was also heard. Even so, things stayed relatively calm in the opening kilometres. Julius Johansen attacked on behalf of UAE Emirates-XRG, but nobody was able to go with him.

That things were nervous became clear from a crash involving Dries Van Gestel and Fabio Van den Bossche of Soudal Quick-Step. We also immediately saw a puncture for Jakob Söderqvist. All of them were able to return, because the peloton was still being controlled in the opening phase by UAE Emirates-XRG and Decathlon CMA CGM. Jan Maas (Cofidis) also tried to break away, but he was quickly reeled in by the fast-moving peloton.

After almost fifty kilometres, two riders finally managed to open up a small gap. They were Spaniard Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) and Floris Van Tricht (NSN). The duo never got as much as ten kilometres clear of the peloton, which was still riding at an average speed of nearly fifty kilometres per hour. That high pace, together with the many gusts of wind, brought the expected echelon racing from sixty kilometres into the race onward. The gaps between the groups, however, remained small.

On the approach to the second passage of the only cobbled sector on the course, the peloton again became more nervous. This resulted in a crash for Matthias Schwarzbacher (EF), who was forced to abandon. On the cobbles, Alpecin-Premier Tech tried to put the opposition under pressure by accelerating through Simon Dehairs. With a little more than eighty kilometres to go, the echelons appeared once again. The tension also immediately caused a crash involving, among others, Marijn van den Berg (EF) and Abraham Stockman (Unibet Rose Rockets).

With 75 kilometres to the finish, the expected crosswind battle now seems to have truly exploded. Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets), among others, helped split the peloton to pieces. As a result, a first peloton of around thirty riders remained. In that front group were, at the very least, Groenewegen, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE), Steffen de Schuyteneer (Lotto-Intermarché) and Luke Lamperti (EF). It was still unclear which sprinters had missed the move.

At the start of the final lap, Groenewegen punctured. His teammates waited for him and seemed to bring him back to the front group without any real problem, although it was still a moment of alarm for the team, which had looked to have the situation well under control. In the second peloton, we mainly saw Flanders-Baloise and TotalEnergies doing the work. Their leaders Emilien Jeannière and Tom Crabbe had missed the split. With fifty kilometres to go, the gap was down to just thirty seconds.

Just as the second group seemed to be catching up, UAE decided to put in another surge at the front, preventing a definitive merger. A little less than five kilometers later, the group led by TotalEnergies finally caught up with the main peloton. As they approached the final passage through the cobbled section, tensions rose again in the peloton. Groenewegen’s teammates were once again riding very attentively at the front. On the cobbled section, we then saw a crash involving, among others, last year’s winner Molano. As a result of the crash, the peloton had thinned out considerably.

Despite several attempts to break it up again, the remaining peloton stayed together. It looked like it was heading toward a sprint with a group of about seventy riders, though echelons were still a threat. Less than a kilometer later, the peloton split briefly, leaving Philipsen behind. However, the Belgian quickly managed to rejoin the peloton.

With seven kilometers to go, Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) broke away from the peloton, but the gap to the Italian remained small. There was a flurry of counterattacks, and the Astana rider was caught just over four kilometers from the finish. It was that same Astana team that, with two kilometers to go, controlled Max Walscheid’s late breakaway for sprinter Max Kanter. Groenewegen was perfectly positioned in the sprint, but Philipsen also moved up well. In the end, it was Groenewegen who gave the Unibet Rose Rockets their first WorldTour victory.