Bad luck has once again come to bite Visma-Lease a Bike at the Classics. What looked like a great situation at Gent-Wevelgem turned into a disaster in a matter of seconds when sprinter Olav Kooij "misjudged a corner" while following eventual winner Mads Pedersen's (Lidl-Trek) wheel and crashed out of contention.
Defending champion Pedersen had been putting the entire field to the sword in De Moeren and over the opening cobbled climbs before he put in another vicious attack on the first of three Plugstreet sectors of unpaved road. Only two could follow him, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Kooij.
