Twelve months ago, Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) pulled off the remarkable feat of staying hidden in plain sight during the build-up to the Tour of Flanders. Despite a string of fine results in the early part of the spring, the neo-professional was able to line up for his debut Ronde relatively unfettered by the demands of the home press.
Benoot’s eventual fifth place finish, at the tender age of 21, changed his standing somewhat, particularly with Tom Boonen very much in the Autumn of his career, but the economics student seems unaffected by the increased attention as he lines up for his second tilt at Flemish cycling’s day of days.
“Last year was the first time I did a race of this distance and it went well for me,” Benoot said at Lotto-Soudal’s pre-race press gathering in Oostkamp on Wednesday evening. “This year, I’m taking the start with different sensations but not with any more stress. I’m setting out with the same confidence as in 2015. I’ve been up there in the finale of the last three races I’ve done and I’ve had better results in those races than I did last year.”
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Benoot was an aggressive presence at Dwars door Vlaanderen, placed 8th at E3 Harelbeke and 15th at Gent-Wevelgem last week, following on from a sparkling start to the season that saw him finish third at Omloop Het Nieuwblad and 8th at Strade Bianche.
Buoyed by those showings, Benoot will be expected to be in the mix come the finale on Sunday, though his directeur sportif Herman Frison insisted that there were three riders – Peter Sagan, Fabian Cancellara and Greg Van Avermaet – operating at a level above the rest. The leap from making an impressive cameo to winning in Oudenaarde is considerable.
“I can win but it’s very difficult,” Benoot said. “There are three riders ahead of everybody else and so you’ll need a bit of luck to beat them. But behind them, anything is possible and in a race of 260 kilometres, you never know.”
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