Sonny Colbrelli wins Brabantse Pijl
Bahrain-Merida's Sonny Colbrelli has won Brabantse Pijl. The Italian rider was the fastest in the final sprint from the surviving breakaway
The 201 kilometers race is part of the Flanders Classics and takes place between the cities of Leuven and Overijse in Belgium.
A group of five riders escaped early on and created a gap of more than five minutes with the peloton. Adam Blythe (Aqua Blue Sport), Lorenzo Rota (Bardiani CSF), Zakkari Dempster (Israel Cycling Academy), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) and Christophe Masson (WB-Veranclassic Aquality Protect).
The break was swallowed up with 50 kms to go.
Soon afterward Stijn Devolder (Veranda's Willems-Crelan) attacked along with, Laurens De Plus (Quick-Step Floors), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto NL-Jumbo), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto-Soudal) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and a few rides from the original breakaway.
The gap hovered at around 25 secs until 5 kms to go, the gap started to come down. Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal) and Petr Vakoc (Quick-Step Floors) attacked from the main group and caught the break.
On the final climb with 1 km to go, the break only had 8 seconds.
In the final sprint, the Italian riding for Bahrain-Merida had the best legs of the day and out sprinted last year's winner Vakoc, who finished second and Benoot who finished third.
Colbrelli adds this to his seventh place in E3 Harelbeke and winning the second stage of Paris-Nice.
