Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ) is making a habit of placing himself in elite company at some of the hardest races on the calendar. At Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne last month, he found himself in the decisive break with Wout van Aert. At Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday, the New Zealander matched Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) until the steepest portion of the final ascent of the Kemmelberg.
Like at Kuurne, the results sheet here does scant justice to the quality of Pithie’s performance. A 26th place finish in the peloton that came in 16 seconds down on the winner Pedersen doesn’t even begin to tell the story of Pithie’s assured Gent-Wevelgem debut.
