Danilith Nokere Koerse 2025

March 19, 2025 The weeklong stage races of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico filled the intermission of the cobbled classics after Opening Weekend but programming resumes with Nokere-Koerse. Tim Merlier, the winner of the last three years, was not on the start line which will give all of the other top sprinters in attendance the opportunity to add Nokere-Koerse to their palmares. There is change to the course for the finale which removes the cobbled climb of the Nokereberg. They still climb the hill to the finish but from a different direction on a paved road which is twice as long at 700M. The 79th edition started in bright sunshine but the break was a difficult one to form. With 96KM to go, a group of four including Rasmus Bøgh Wallin of Uno-X Mobility, Jelle Johannink of Unibet-Tietema Rockets, Alex Colman of Flanders-Baloise, and Lennert Teugels of Tarteletto-Isorex were off the front but they only had 40 seconds on the peloton led by Tudor Pro Cycling and Alpecin-Deceuninck. On the Doorn cobbles with 75KM to go, Jonas Rickaert of Alpecin-Deceuninck made a subtle acceleration which drew a group of eight off the front. XDS-Astana and Uno-X Mobility were sharp and quick to bring it back before the next sector of the Huisepontweg. The break went over the Nokereberg for two laps to go with 35 seconds to the peloton. Teams spread across the road for a pause in hostilities for the first half of the lap which allowed the break to grow the gap again to 1 minute 30 seconds. The speed ramped up for the push into the Lange Ast cobbled climb with 51KM to go. UAE-XRG hit it at full speed but the race was all together over the top. Nerves continued to build and there were a number of crashes leading into the Doorn cobbles as a consequence. Rickaert hit the front just the same as last lap and eight riders made the front split. One by one however, others made their way back on and it was one long line on the Huisepontweg. Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck ripped it up again on the Huisepontweg and only Arthur Kluckers of Tudor Pro Cycling was able to follow. Lukáš Kubiš of Unibet-Tietema Rockets joined them but neither were eager to give Philipsen a pull. A five man chase group formed with Florian Vermeersch of UAE-XRG, Jakob Söderqvist of Lidl-Trek, Edward Planckaert of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lewis Askey of Groupama-FDJ, and Erik Nordsæter Resell of Uno-X Mobility. The two groups came together with 39KM to go but the rest of the peloton were only a handful of seconds behind. Soudal Quickstep closed the final meters to bring the peloton back together. Teugels and Colman had been dropped from the break which left just Bøgh Wallin and Johannink out front, and with 34KM to go, they held 30 seconds on the bunch. Bøgh Wallin rode Johannink out of his wheel with 26KM to go and increased the gap out to nearly 1 minute. The peloton hit the Lange Ast for the final time with 20.5KM to go but it was the slowest they went up it all day. The lull continued until Doorn when Alpecin-Deceuninck put it in the gutter one more time. This passage did less damage but it was still strung out in single file. Bøgh Wallin did a strong ride but was finally brought back with 11.5KM to go on the Huisepontweg as UAE-XRG tried their hand at splitting the peloton with Florian Vermeersch. Philipsen contributed to the workload and had the entire group under pressure. He put in another dig on a short rise and when he looked back, only about 10 riders were with him. There was limited cooperation and with Soudal Quickstep, Groupama-FDJ, and Intermarché-Wanty chasing, the gap of 10 seconds was closed 3,800M from the line. Rickaert led the bunch through 800M to go when the road started to rise to the line. A crash in the bunch took down at least ten riders including Jasper Philipsen, putting him out of contention. Soudal Quickstep took over but only had one man in front of the their leader, Luke Lamperti. When the last lead out man swung off, there was a pull back of pace which allowed a swell to come from behind. Milan Menten of Lotto led that rush with Nils Eeekhoff of Picnic-PostNL on his wheel. Menten went a little early and had to sit down. Eekhoff kept his sprint going and hit the front. He had enough in the tank to hold off the others for an important win for his team. Matteo Moschetti of Q36.5 was second with Lamperti in third.