Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) took a confidence-boosting pre-World Championships victory at the Tour de l’Eurometropole, but did so in controversial circumstances as Oliver Naesen (IAM) protested vehemently against the result.
In the former stage race’s new incarnation as a one-day outing, there was a messy sprint after a leading group of three was caught playing cat and mouse inside the final kilometre. One of them was Naesen, second overall at the Eneco Tour recently, but he managed to move up through the gears again and found Groenewegen’s wheel before attempting to come around him.
The Dutch champion edged towards the left as he continued his sprint, with Naesen forced to bunny hop a concrete block on the finish line as he moved towards the barriers. The Belgian waved his arms in remonstration, and then approached his rival afterwards, only to be ignored. After a tense wait in the winner’s enclosure, the race jury decided that the result would stand.
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Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) finished a more distant third from the group of 18, which had formed in the crowssinds earlier in the day.
The 195km course between Poperinge et Tournai was based on the final stage of recent editions of the race, with seven laps of a 14.7km finishing circuit in Tournai. With just one small climb on the loop, a bunch sprint may have been on the cards, but the wind blowing across the Franco-Belgian border caused the race to split.
A select group of 18 formed, and Etixx-QuickStep were well represented with Boonen, Julien Vermote, Nikolas Maes, Fernando Gaviria, and Yves Lampaert, while Lotto Soudal (Jelle Wallays, Jens Debuscherre and Jurgen Roelandts), LottoNL-Jumbo (Groenewegen, Maarten Wynants, and Mike Teunissen), and Cofidis (Kenneth Van Bilsen, Florian Senechal, and Dorian Godon) all had three. Also in there were Katusha’s Nils Politt, Amaury Capiot from Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, Joeri Calleeuw from Verandas-Willems, and Naesen.
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