Benoot on Visma | Lease a Bike's race tactics: "That other group had riders we did not want to encounter in the sprint"

Two weeks ago, Benoot was one of the best riders in Dwars door Vlaanderen and finished sixth in the Tour of Flanders, but he did not feel up to par in the Brabantse Pijl. “I didn't have the best legs, so I hope it was a good warm-up for Sunday. I felt blocked and hope to feel like myself again on Sunday,” said the man from Ghent, who finished third in last year's Amstel Gold Race.

'Not the best legs' is relative in this case because, in the end, it was Benoot who pushed the pace on the Moskesstraat, with van Aert on his wheel, who eventually took the lead with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and the somewhat surprising Joe Blackmore of Israel-Premier Tech.

"We rode how we wanted. It would have been better if I had been there too, but that wasn't possible," Benoot said honestly. "There were still fifty kilometers to go, and we couldn't wait any longer. The group for third place was still quite large, and there were guys in it that we didn't necessarily want to encounter in the sprint. Alex Aranburu and so on," Benoot explained.

Visma | Lease a Bike's super-domestique saw them eventually pull away. "Remco pushes on, and Wout takes over, where many guys struggle. Me too. Then, the three of them rode away, which was the best three at the front. And I think the best man won in the end after a race like that," he said, referring to Evenepoel's sprint victory.

Was Visma | Lease a Bike surprised that Evenepoel was immediately at the top of his game in his first race? "Surprised is a big word. With Remco there, I know it can turn out like this," said Benoot with a grin, who now knows Evenepoel as a competitor and teammate in the Belgian selection.