Meeus wins as Hagenes is caught late and Van Aert punctures at crucial moment in Ename Samyn Classic

The Ename Samyn Classic has a very strong roll of honour, with names like Philippe Gilbert, Arnaud Démare, Niki Terpstra, Tim Merlier and Matteo Trentin among the former winners. Last year, another superstar was added to that list in Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman of Alpecin-Premier Tech made his return to racing in the event and immediately won.

Van der Poel was not on the start list this time, but the spotlight was still firmly on the race, with Van Aert making his season debut here. The Visma | Lease a Bike captain was due to line up alongside, among others, Christophe Laporte and Per Strand Hagenes in a very strong block, but Laporte was forced to withdraw last minute through illness. With riders like Meeus (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), former winner Laurenz Rex (Soudal Quick-Step) and Lukas Kubis (Unibet Rose Rockets), there was no shortage of contenders.

The start in Quaregnon was fast. There were plenty of early attacks, but it took a long time before a group finally managed to make the break stick. Eventually, five riders got clear: Dutchman Stijn Appel (BEAT), joined by Baptiste Vadic (TotalEnergies), Kévin Avoine (Van Rysel Roubaix), Lucas Bénéteau (St Michel – Preference Home – Auber93) and Bogdan Zabelinskiy (Aarco).

The leaders were never given much room. The gap never grew beyond two minutes, which encouraged counter-moves. Ed Uptegrove (EEW-VDK), who had already been active earlier, tried to bridge across with Arnaud Tendon (Van Rysel Roubaix). But as the race progressed, more and more big names began to show themselves at the front of the bunch — with Van Aert, of course, among them.

You could feel the accelerations were coming. With 60 kilometres to go, a small dozen riders managed to force a split. Visma | Lease a Bike had Per Strand Hagenes and Pietro Mattio there, while Gianni Vermeersch (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Axel Huens (Groupama-FDJ United) and Tomas Kopecky (Unibet Rose Rockets) were also present.

That group built a forty-second advantage, but the cooperation was not always smooth. So Hagenes took matters into his own hands, attacking solo with 30 kilometres to go and putting his teammates in a perfect position behind. Visma then tried to defend the Norwegian’s advantage from the bunch.

Approaching the key sectors, other teams wanted to bring their leaders to the front, and that naturally reduced Hagenes’ lead. Once on the cobbles, it also became clear that several teams — including Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe — were already beginning to think about a sprint finish. Vermeersch was doing more reacting than attacking.

With ten kilometres remaining, Visma | Lease a Bike’s situation changed dramatically after Van Aert punctured. The Belgian continued on teammate Pietro Mattio’s bike, before switching again roughly 1.5 kilometres later onto his own spare bike. It cost him around 45 seconds, while Unibet Rose Rockets saw Dylan Groenewegen dropped in the same phase.

Up front, Hagenes kept grinding on towards the final five kilometres, starting that segment with a 15-second advantage. In the peloton, the chase went all-in — and they did finally bring him back into sight on the last cobbled sector of the day.

Vermeersch and Meeus led that chase, with Kubis and Danny van Poppel on their wheels. But Hagenes dug deep once more and exited the sector — with two kilometres to go — still five seconds clear. In Dour, that proved to be just not enough, thanks to the work of Bahrain Victorious.

In the sprint, Alpecin-Premier Tech then moved up, with Kubis in their slipstream. On the other side of the road, Meeus launched early and held on strongly to finish it off. Rex (Soudal Quick-Step) and Hugo Hofstetter (NSN) joined him on the podium.