Tiesj Benoot’s performances had been turning heads in the early weeks of his professional career but surely few outside of his Lotto-Soudal team could have anticipated a Tour of Flanders debut quite like this one.
The late attack that saw Benoot help himself to fifth place in Oudenaarde, 36 seconds down on winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), also marked the moment that he graduated from being mentioned in despatches to earning headlines of his own.
There are no newspapers in Belgium on Easter Monday but on crossing the finish line Benoot was briskly ushered towards Sporza’s temporary studio on the square, where he joined former Ronde winners Eddy Planckaert and Nick Nuyens to discuss his race live on air. “He’s got a sprint too, he’s the new man for the Classics,” Planckaert said enthusiastically.
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Still only 21 years of age and an economics student at the University of Ghent, the external assumption was that Benoot was included in the Lotto team primarily to gain experience for future years. Yet he was prominent on the Taaienberg and again hit the front on the Kruisberg, shortly before Kristoff’s winning move in the company of Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) took shape.
“I guess I can’t complain,” Benoot said after the finish. “I hid myself all day and then the second time up Kwaremont I saw I was with the best and I was happy to be there. Then after that it was a question of following, following, following until the Taaienberg.”
In keeping with recent tradition, Lotto-Soudal maintained a laudably aggressive presence on Sunday, constantly looking to break open an otherwise cautious and controlled race. After Lars Bak joined the early break, André Greipel made a number of forceful attempts before Benoot hit the front in the final 35 kilometres in an attempt to lay the groundwork for Jürgen Roelandts.
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