Grand Prix de Denain - Porte du Hainaut 2025

March 20, 2025 The riders set off from Denain for the start of the mini Paris-Roubaix. The 197KM race takes on 13 cobbled sectors totaling 23.1KM, including Saint-Python and sectors around Quérénaing that feature in Paris-Roubaix. Fortunately, the weather was warm and dry and the cobbles were dusty which should make for a safer race than if they were wet. It took nearly 2 hours for the break to form but four riders eventually made the break of the day including Rory Townsend of Q36.5, Quentin Bezza of Wagner-Bazin WB, Aaron Gate of XDS-Astana, and Kévin Avoine of Van Rysel Roubaix. With 65KM to go, their lead was just 1 minute. The bunch was still relatively big but the race really split up on sector 9 of Capelle à Ruesnes. A group of about 20 separated themselves from the rest of the peloton and, in the break, only Townsend and Gate remained. The front split caught Townsend and Gate with 56KM to go and the peloton behind seemed to be resigned, all spread across the road before the next sector of Artres à Famers. Lewis Askey and many of his Groupama-FDJ teammates were stuck in the peloton and they started to organize for a chase but Alec Segaert of Lotto was pushing on in the front on sector 8, Artres à Famers. Ten riders exited Artres à Famers in the lead including Segaert and his teammate Brent Van Moer, Matthew Brennan of Visma-Lease a Bike, Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R, Axel Huens and Tomáš Kopecký of Unibet-Tietema Rockets, Gianni Vermeersch and Tibor Del Grosso of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Dillon Corkery of St. Michele-Preference Home-Auber93, and Florian Vermeersch of UAE-XRG. The ten leaders started sector 4 of Thiant à Haspres at 31KM to go with 20 seconds advantage to a chase group of seven and nearly a minute to the main peloton. The chase contained riders from Unibet-Tietema Rockets and UAE-XRG who were just marking the others out and acting sinkers for that group. Del Grosso flatted out of the front group on sector 3, Avesnes-le-Sec à Hordain. Gianni Vermeersch stopped working to wait for his teammate but Del Grosso was much closer to being caught by the chase group than he was getting back to the front. Huens was the next one to be forced to stop with a flat which left just eight riders in the lead with 15KM to go. Segaert was the first one to try and get away from the break. He was immediately covered by Gianni Vermeersch and brought back with 12KM to go. The front group was still together after the final sector of Abscon, 8.5KM from the line. The Lotto riders did not really have a sprint card to play so they continued to attack on the run in but everyone was wise and the eight leaders were all together under 1KM to go. Kopecký started the sprint at 250M but he had to slow down for a curve in the road which allowed Gianni Vermeersch to get a run on him. Brennen was on Vermeersch's wheel and came around with 100M to go to take his first professional victory at the tender age of just 19. Gianni Vermeersch held on for second with De Bondt grabbing third place on the day.