Sonny Colbrelli from Bahrain Merida won yesterday’s 197km long stage after a fabulous sprint in the finish of the Brabantse Pijl race.
The 57th edition of Brabantse Pijl race was the final one of this season’s Flanders Classics.
Bahrain Merida riders started the race highly motivated, with Colbrelli as their first leader and Enrico Gasparotto the second. All of them were aware of their role and importance of helping the leaders to achieve a good result. Just a few kilometres after the start a group of six riders went in a breakaway and held an approximate gap of three minutes along the way. But after 120km the breakaway was caught and the Bahrain Merida riders took all in their hands.
Enrico Gasparotto, Grega Bole and Colbrelli, with continuous support from Ivan Garcia, Luka Pibernik and Meiyin Wang, gave their best for the big victory of Colbrelli. At three laps to finish, each 20km long, Grega Bole took over the new breakaway group of 10 riders and Colbrelli was just behind him. Gasparotto was at the front of the peloton with support of Pibernik, Garcia and Wang. Bole and Gasparotto kept eyes on Gilbert and finally at the last few hundred metres to the finish, Colbrelli showed his great strength, style and class in a fabulous sprint. He took second stage victory this season and repaid all the hard work for every member of the team.
“I wanted to win so much after such an aggressive race. I was nervous during the race because I did not want the peloton to caught us and in the sprint I was worried that I’d lost it because Vakoc squeezed me into the barriers, but finally I found the space and managed to win,” said Colbrelli.