What a comeback! Evenepoel wins Brabantse Pijl in spectacular showdown with van Aert

The Brabantse Pijl perfectly transitions from the cobbled classics to the Ardennes triptych. The vicious hills and a few cobbled sections offer opportunities for many riders. These conditions ensured a fantastic start list, with riders such as Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert, and Jhonatan Narváez. But the highlight was Remco Evenepoel's return after a long injury. The Aerobullet from Schepdaal rode through part of his home region and enjoyed plenty of local support.

In the women's race, forming an early breakaway group was impossible, but in the men's race, this happened immediately after leaving Beersel. Six men eventually managed to break away from the peloton. The Belgians Tuur Dens (Flanders-Baloise) and Jens Reynders (Wagner Bazin WB) were joined by Dutchman Joren Bloem (Unibet Tietema Rockets), Adne Holter (Uno-X Mobility), Iuri Leitão (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) and Antonio Soto (Equipo Kern Pharma). Together, they built up a solid lead, but their gap never grew significantly: with 90 kilometers to go, their margin was only 1.30 minutes.

When the riders passed the Holstheide for the first time, they entered the local circuit, which meant increased speed and more breakaways. The race started immediately, with attacks from the Soudal Quick-Step and Alpecin-Deceuninck camps. But EF Education - EasyPost controlled the race before pushing hard on the Hertstraat. On the Moskestraat, however, Visma | Lease a Bike blew the race wide open with 50 kilometers to go.

A group of favorites formed, including Marijn van den Berg, Tom Pidcock, and Remco Evenepoel. Pidcock then attacked on the Holstheide. Together with van Aert, he shook up the peloton again. The two rode away, but Joe Blackmore (Israel—Premier Tech) managed to catch up on the descent. Suddenly, there were three leaders! Neilson Powless, Van den Berg, Pidcock, and Narváez had to chase.

It was a powerful trio with a 50-second lead over the chasers with two laps to go. The peloton did close the gap slightly as the teams of Pidcock and Powless joined forces. But the strongest men were still at the front, and the peloton couldn't get any closer. Van Aert, Evenepoel, and Blackmore were the strongest, especially on the climbs.

Powless had missed the action and was very disappointed. He pressed on in the Moskestraat and again in the Holstheide but failed to make a difference. Pidcock also seemed to be struggling. After a chaotic phase, the peloton started chasing collectively again, and the lead got smaller. There were 30 seconds left, mainly because the peloton pushed the pace at the front. Alpecin-Deceuninck put three men at the front, and the gap decreased more and more.

Of course, the three weren't done yet. On the Hertstraat, Evenepoel pushed hard, with van Aert following closely behind. But it was all over for Blackmore, so Brabant got the perfect scenario: the two fan favorites proved the best. The Olympic champion was incredibly strong but couldn't drop his compatriot on the Moskestraat. They were evenly matched, and the chasers fell behind: it came down to these two contenders.

The Belgian superstars continued to work well together until two kilometers before the finish. It was van Aert who didn't take the lead. He seemed to have suffered the most along the way, so he didn't want to leave anything to chance. His opponent chose to wait for the sprint. Evenepoel was the first to go, starting early, and the exhausted van Aert couldn't get past him.