Filippo Baroncini (UAE Team Emirates) scored the first win of his professional career at the Super 8 Classic, soloing to glory from a select lead group late in the 198km race.
The Italian crossed the line alone 21 seconds ahead of Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling), who struck out from the chase in the final 2km. Rui Oliveira made it two on the podium for UAE Team Emirates with a third-placed finish, 31 seconds down.
Baroncini, the former U23 world champion, was part of a select group of around 15 men who came together in the lead of the race towards the end of the ‘hill zone’ around 20km from the line with the larger peloton in pursuit.
He had Oliveira for company, while other names up front included Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech), Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Dstny), GP Wallonie winner Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), and Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty).
With only the day’s final climb of the Bosstraat left to tackle at 15km out, the lead group enjoyed a lead of over a minute on the chasing peloton, which contained most of the top sprinters in the race.
The race was all set for a big battle among the leaders on the run into Haacht, but Baroncini took matters into his own hands to jump away as Oliveira covered moves behind.
Pluimers, Adrià and Teunissen were among those trying to make solo moves in the chase as Baroncini built his lead up towards 30 seconds, but nobody could get across to the 24-year-old.
He could enjoy the closing metres of his effort safe in the knowledge that he’d succeeded in his efforts to stay away, while behind him a third and final attack from Pluimers at 1.3km out saw the Dutchman finally break free and roll home for second place.
How it unfolded
The semi-Classic, last year won by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) for his first victory in the rainbow jersey of world champion, saw the peloton take on a challenging and hilly 198km course from Brakel to Haacht, with 10 major hills crammed into the second half of the route.
Early in the day, Loïc Vliegen (Bingoal WB), Kay De Bruyckere (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), Lars Craps (Flanders-Baloise), Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Julius van den Berg (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) got away to form the race’s main breakaway.
It was a strong-looking move and as such, the group wasn’t allowed more than a three-minute advantage. That gap only went down as the race approached the hills, which included the Chemin de l’Herbe, Moskestraat, and Florivalstraat.
Johan Jacobs (Movistar) and Natnael Tesfatsion (Lidl-Trek) launched hopeful attacks in an attempt to bridge the gap to the leaders during this period of the race, but neither managed to get across.
Both were duly brought back, and the race hit the Moskestraat for a second and final time with 36km to go with just three men left out front – Johanessen, De Bruyckere, and Van den Berg left in the lead.
Heading up the hill, with three further climbs left to tackle, they had just 20 seconds on the peloton, though accelerations from behind – including one from Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) more or less brought them back by the top.
He made it across along with Vermeersch, but the peloton was quick to shut any potential counter-move down. That didn’t stop the attacks and counter-attacks, however.
Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies) led Baroncini, Pluimers and Adrià in the next wave of moves, with the quartet maintaining a small gap to a larger chase group with the peloton lagging behind.
Just before the final hill of the Bosstraat, the chasing group came across to the leaders, forming the larger group that would contest the final with the sprinters back in the peloton and well out of the picture.
From there, Baroncini laid in wait and picked his moment to go. At 14km, his move came a long way from the line, but it proved to be just right as he built his lead and kept the momentum going all the way to the line for UAE Team Emirates’ 75th win of the 2024 season.
Results
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