After the highs of victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, BMC Racing were dealt a reality check at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, when despite numbers heavily in their favour, they missed the race winning move. That they were able to post four riders – half their team – in the top 20 was a sign that they had a squad that was riding strongly.
Omloop winner Greg Van Avermaet was their first rider to cross the line, finishing seventh after claiming second from the chasing pack, six seconds back from the winning group, with Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) taking the victory. Stefan Küng, Jempy Drucker and Daniel Oss also made it into the first 20 riders at 11 and 13 seconds down.
Van Avermaet tried twice to bridge across to the leading group but could never quite manage it. Speaking after the race, team directeur sportif Valerio Piva said that as soon as they had given Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) – who was in the lead group – more than a few metres, they were already on the back foot.
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“I told my riders, he made the move last year,” Valerio Piva told Cyclingnews and Het Lastse Nieuws. “He took five metres, then 10 and then when the guys realised they tried to close, and they closed a little bit but then Sagan went with nobody in his wheel, and then we tried to close, and Benoot went. Everything went. I tell my riders all the time, that when you are chasing you are losing, you need to anticipate and that was the mistake today. We had to work to close the gap and the rest reaped the benefit.
“We made a mistake in this moment and, of course, against Sagan and those four riders in front it was difficult. They went so fast and they showed that they were the strongest.”
When the race began to split up over the ascents of the Oude Kwaremont and the Kluisburg with around 80 kilometres remaining, BMC, along with Quick-Step, dominated the group. Küng even went for the intermediate sprint, which offered up 2,500 euros to the first rider to cross the finish line when they began the opening local lap. The attacks served to diminish the group, but Piva believes that they paid for their early efforts.
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