In the opening phase – which was marred by several crashes – the peloton did not allow escapes for a long time. It took more than two hours for the match to start. Five riders rode in front of the peloton for a while, but Visma-Lease a Bike quickly put things in order.

Van Aert – who appeared at the start for the first time in Kuurne – then decided to go ahead and was joined by Tim Wellens, Oier Lazkano and Laurence Pithie. The latter soon could no longer keep up with the pace and had to retire when Van Aert accelerated again with 70km to go.

The trio made it to the finish with the three of them. In a sprint, the Belgian fullback was too fast for his colleagues after more than 196km. Wellens came second, third was Lazkano. In about a minute and a half, France’s Christophe Laporte, Van Aert’s teammate, won the chase group sprint. Dutchman Nils Eekhoff (dsm company PostNL) came fifth.

“They were two good mates and the wind in the final was also in our favour,” Van Aert said in the flash interview afterwards. “I knew it could be done this way. Although I didn’t expect there to be such a small group. With three it’s a little harder to surprise others.”

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There was even more success for Visma – Lease a Bike as Jonas Vingegaard won Spain’s O Gran Camiño four-day race, just like last year. The Dane was just as dominant as a year ago and won three stages again. In the final stage, with an uphill finish, he finished 16 seconds ahead of Lenny Martinez of France. Britain’s Hugh Carthy came third in 45 seconds.

Martinez was also second in the final classification, in which he had to give just under 2 minutes. Third place went to Colombian Egan Bernal. For Tour winner Vingegaard, O Gran Camiño was his first race of the season. The 27-year-old Dane will take part in Italy’s Tirreno-Adriatico race in just over a week.