Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields 2024

March 24, 2024 Eight riders got up the road in the initial breakaway but as the race turned through De Moeren, echelons and crashes split the peloton. The eight riders were caught with 120KM to go as a result of the racing behind but only a group of thirty five were there in the favorites group. A large peloton were working their way back to the front with a gap of forty seconds at 100KM to go and it was all together at 93KM to go as the race reached the Baneberg for the first time. On the first ascent of the Kemmelberg, Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck split the race into pieces. Only Jonathan Milan and Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek could stay with him. The trio were joined by four more as the road flattened after the decent, Rasmus Tiller of Uno-X Mobility, Laurence Pithie of Groupama-FDJ, Jasper Stuyven of Lidl-Trek and Tim van Dijke of Visma-Lease a Bike. Milan went solo but the group had two Lidl-Trek riders in it, leaving only a few to actually chase. Milan turned onto the first of the plugstreets to Hill 63 with a twenty five second margin. van der Poel attacked the first chase group, dropping van Dijke and Tiller. Stuyven was dropped on the turn into the next section, Christmas Truce, with 70KM to go due to a flat tire, leaving van der Poel and Pithie chasing Milan while Pedersen sat on. Milan was caught and Pedersen attacked right away but was brought back just as quickly. A new pattern would have to emerge if the group of four would keep their one minute gap to the peloton. The second time up the Kemmelberg, the peloton came into shot as Milan was dropped from the front before the top. The leaders were down to eighteen seconds advantage. Anthony Turgis of TotalEnergies, Hugo Page of Intermarché-Wanty and Ben Turner of Ineos got out of the peloton on the Baneberg in chase of the leading trio. Pithie was dropped as Pedersen led up the steep Kemmelberg cobbles with van der Poel glued on. Pithie was caught by the three chasers at 25KM remaining but an ever growing gap of over a minute meant they were stuck in the middle. Between Ineos and Soudal Quickstep, the peloton got organized and brought back the four chasers with 15KM to go leaving a podium spot up for grabs if Pedersen and van der Poel could away. The pair worked well and kept the peloton consistently at fifty seconds. Under the 1KM kite, Pedersen led and he would not relinguish the lead. He started the sprint at 300M to go, van der Poel stayed on the wheel until about 150M. It looked like van der Poel would come around but he ran out of gas and Pedersen hung on for the win. From the bunch, Jordi Meeus of Bora-Hansgrohe took the sprint for the final podium spot.