De Brabantse Pijl - La Flèche Brabançonne 2025

April 18, 2025 We start our transition out of Flanders into the Ardennes with De Brabantse Pijl. The race is characterized by the 20KM circuit around Overijse which includes the cobbled Hertstraat and Moskesstraat, the latter featuring in the Leuven World Championships in 2021, as well as the Holstheide and the famous S-Bocht Overijse which takes the riders up to the finish line. After leaving Beersel at KM0, the riders take on about 100KM before starting the three laps around the circuit for a total of 163KM of racing in total which is around 30KM less than the routes in previous years. The main pre-race story was the return of Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quickstep who was starting his first race of the season after a training accident in December left him with a number of fractures and an undecided future in the sport. It was a perfect day for racing with temperatures getting up to 18C (64F) and not a breath of wind. A break of six riders got up the road consisting of Tuur Dens of Flanders-Baloise, Jens Reynders of Wagner-Bazin WB, Joren Bloem of Unibet-Tietema Rockets, Ådne Holter of Uno-X Mobility, Iúri Leitão of Caja-Rural Seguros RGA, and Antonio Jesús Soto of Equipo Kern Pharma and they had a lead of 1 minute 45 seconds with 82KM to go. The race entered the circuit with 70KM to go, halfway through the lap, with the peloton all blocked across the road in preparation for the Holstheide for the first time. Intermarché-Wanty made the first move from the bunch at the base of the Holstheide. Nothing went but it set off an attacking spirit within the bunch. The peloton was very active as they went up the S-Bocht and through the finish line to start the first full lap of three, just 40 seconds behind the break. EF-Education First EasyPost led into the Hertstraat and ripped up the climb, stringing out the bunch into one long line which caused splits near the back. Next up was the Moskesstraat. Visma-Lease a Bike rode a lead out for Wout van Aert who put in a full effort and, over the top, around 20 riders were left in the favorites group. They were quickly on to the Holstheide where Evenepoel put in a dig of his own as they caught the early breakaway. Van Aert went over the top of Evenepoel and put a lot of riders into the red including Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 and Neilson Powless of EF-Education First EasyPost. Evenepoel took another turn that only van Aert could follow and the pair went off together. Joseph Blackmore of Israel-Premier Tech leapt from the second group and was able to join the Belgians in what was a very impressive effort to make three rider at the front. As the leaders went over the S-Bocht and through the finish line for two laps to go, all of the chase groups consolidated to form a large peloton but they had slipped to 47 seconds behind. Over the Moskesstraat and Holstheide, the front group maintained their advantage of 45 seconds as the peloton was more interested in sending one-off attacks rather than work together to form a coherent chase. Q36.5, EF-Education First EasyPost, and Alpecin-Deceuninck finally put riders to the front on the flat road heading back to the S-Bocht for the penultimate time which trimmed the gap down to 33 seconds by the time they heard the bell for the final 20KM lap. Evenepoel put in a full seated effort on the final time up the Hertstraat which popped Blackmore off the back. Evenepoel and van Aert never looked back and kept pressing forward in order to keep their advantage. Blackmore was absorbed into the peloton right before the turn on to the Moskesstraat. At the front, van Aert stayed glued to Evenepoel's wheel and the pair started the Holstheide with a 35 second gap. They worked well together on the road back to Overijse until just outside of 2KM to go when van Aert skipped the first pull. Evenepoel was forced to lead up the S-Bocht through scores of screaming fans passed the Wall of Champions. As the gradient eased with 250M to go, Evenepoel started his sprint from the front. Van Aert looked like he might come out of the slipstream at 150M but Evenepoel's sprint was too strong and he took the win on his first day back to racing. Van Aert took second and looked quite disappointed as he crossed the line. In the race for third, Alex Baudin of EF-Education First EasyPost got away over the Moskesstraat and was joined by Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X Mobility after the Holstheide. They were caught on the run to the finish and it was António Morgado of UAE-XRG who won the sprint of around 30 riders for third place ahead of Alex Aranburu in fourth and Eduard Prades of Caja-Rural Seguros RGA in fifth.