"At the end of the race, I could still keep up with Wout van Aert" - Young Tudor rider impresses with 5th place at Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne

Rick Pluimers was one of the names we needed to (re-) learn during Opening weekend. The 24-year-old riding for Tudor Pro Cycling shockingly finished 5th at Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne. Ahead of the likes of Wout Van Aert.

It was a good weekend for the Pluimers family as Rick's younger sister Ilse Pluimers finished 9th at Omloop day earlier. "We've had that since we were young, that we copy each other every year," laughs Pluimers after his excellent performance, in conversation with In de Leiderstrui. "When Ilse rides well, I ride well. When I ride well, Ilse rides well. I think that her beautiful ninth place in the Omloop was an omen for my fifth place today."

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Not that Pluimers had the feeling from the start that he would be in the top five of Kuurne. "At the beginning of the race I still felt my legs twitching, but certainly at the end on the Oude Kruisberg and the Hotond I could keep up with Wout van Aert," he says. "Then the legs are good."

"After that I was a bit on the limit, but I think that was the case for everyone in the end. It was a tough race, but because there were many sprinter teams and little wind a large group remained."

Then Tudor surprisingly chose Pluimers for the sprint. "We had actually agreed to sprint with Matteo Trentin, but a lap before the end he asked how I felt, because he was close to cramps. But so was I. I wanted to try anyway. Trentin set me off very well in that last corner. I was in the right wheel, very close to Kooij, but I was just pushed out with 400 meters to go."

As a result, Pluimers sprinted to the finish line not from the first, but from the second row. "I don't know who I was on the wheel of in the end, but I was still pretty good at the front. There wasn't much left, but luckily I was able to continue to the finish."

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