World cyclo-cross champion Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) took a surprise victory in the prologue of the Baloise Belgium Tour in Beveren. Van Aert beat multiple time trial world champion Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) by two seconds over the six-kilometre course. IAM Cycling's Reto Hollenstein was third a further two seconds back.
Van Aert powered around the short, but technical, course in a time of 6:54 and had a tense wait for Martin to cross the line but the German didn’t have enough to best the 21-year-old. The Baloise Belgium Tour is the first road race of Van Aert’s season as he builds up towards a tilt at the Belgian road race championships.
As well as Martin, Etixx-QuickStep got two other riders into the top 10 with Niki Terpstra and Yves Lampaert, putting them into a strong position for the overall classification.
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Aidis Kruopis (Verandas Willems Cycling Team) was the first rider to roll down the start ramp at 12:34 local time. As the first rider, he would briefly set the fastest time but that wouldn’t stand for very long with Hollenstein demolishing it with his time of 6:58, the first to go under the seven-minute mark.
Hollenstein was in for a long time in the hot seat as riders continually failed to better his effort. In fact, it was over two hours before he was nudged off the hot seat by Van Aert.
Thursday will be the first open road stage of the Baloise Belgium Tour with the 174.5km ride from Buggenhout to Knokke-Heist. The race is due to finish on Sunday, May 29.
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