WHAT WE'VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE WINS RACES

Asix-rider break escaped in the Brussels Classic, and the composition was: two Lotto riders - Philippe Gilbert and Tosh Van der Sande - two UAE Emirates riders - Marc Hirschi and Brandon McNulty, plus Remco Evenepoel of Deceuninck-Quick Step and Aimé De Gendt of Intermarché.

It was a fascinating mix. Evenepoel was the form rider, and had won Druivenkoers-Overijse just two days before. Gilbert’s experience makes him a danger in any one-day race and McNulty had also come within a few kilometres of contesting for gold at the Olympic road race just a few weeks before. And the fact that Lotto and UAE each had two riders meant that there were tactical possibilities to combat Evenepoel’s good form.

However, as well as strong legs, Evenepoel had one other advantage: the race passes through his home village. With 18km to go, the group reached a T-junction with an ambiguous set of arrows posted up. Four riders went right; local boy Evenepoel, who knew exactly where he was and where the race was going, went left, with De Gendt. By the time the quartet had executed a U-turn, Evenepoel and De Gendt were far in the distance. The Belgians shared the work, but when Evenepoel attacked with 10km to go up a short drag, De Gendt could not respond and the young DQS rider celebrated a home win that had combined a little strength with a lot of knowledge of the parcours.