Podium finish for UAE Team’s Trentin
Matteo Trentin (right) poses on the podium with the other two winners.
The Emirati squad were active throughout the day with Sven Erik Bystrom covering the attacks in the later half of the race, paving the way for Trentin to make his move off the front of the peloton.
Trentin went for a long-range solo attack from an elite group of riders with over 25km to go building up a lead of over 20’’ as they crossed the line for the final lap of the circuit in Overijse in Belgium.
With 8km to go Trentin was joined by Tom Pidcock (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and this trio would go on to form the race winning move.
In the final dash to the line, Pidcock proved the quickest with Trentin close behind in third place after a gutsy ride on the 201 km course.
Trentin: “I had a decent gap going across the finish on the last lap and my tempo was good but it was hard to hold off the whole group as they were collaborating.
“When I saw Van Aert and Pidcock coming across I decided to ease up a little bit and try and recover a bit because I thought this would be the winning move and in the end it was.
“I felt good today but the legs were a bit tired in the end and the strongest guy won. I look forward to coming back racing on these roads at the World Championships later in the year.”
Meanwhile, Spanish rider Jose Manuel Diaz, took over the leader’s jersey in the Tour of Turkey when he won the fifth stage above Elmali on Thursday, the only summit finish in the race.
The Spaniard, who rides for French team Delko, sprinted ahead of the Australian Jay Vine and the Argentinian Eduardo Sepulveda at the finish, after a 12-kilometre climb at 6.3 percent gradient, getting far steeper right at the end. The young Danish Anthon Charmig broke away 1,500 metres from the line but struggled with the wind and was overwhelmed in the last 200 metres.
Diaz, 26, who had previously won only one stage of the Tour of Rwanda last year, takes over the race lead from British sprinter Mark Cavendish who won the three previous stages.
In the general classification, he is four seconds ahead of Vine and six seconds better off than Sepulveda with three stages still to come.
Meanwhile, Italian cycling team Vini Zabù withdrew from the Giro d’Italia on Thursday while awaiting a decision from the UCI over a possible suspension because of two doping cases.
The team said the decision comes “despite showing to the relevant bodies (we) have adopted the most strict measures” to fight doping.
It adds that an “internal investigation has confirmed” the innocence of its athletes and the entire team regarding “any unfair practice.”
The UCI said last month that Matteo De Bonis has been provisionally suspended pending a disciplinary case after testing positive for the blood-boosting hormone EPO in a sample taken on Feb. 16.
