Matis Louvel impresses with stand-out win at Druivenkoers - Overijse: "Cobblestones are really my thing"

After Top20 places at the Tour des Flandres and Paris-Roubaix this year, Matis Louvel promised. Today at the Druivenkoers - Overijse he delivered, taking the biggest win of his career and against world-class competition.

“I've already had a good season this year with some nice places of honor in the classics at the start of this season. Then followed the Critérium du Dauphiné, Paris Nice and I rode my first Tour," Louvel said in a post-race interview. "So I knew I had the capacity to win a race like this and I'm glad I did today".

Louvel went clear together with Arnaud Démare and Dries van Gestel in the latter parts of the Belgian race. “In the final I had good legs, but I had to anticipate to avoid the sprint," he said. A classics rider by nature, he found himself on a great day and went clear. "I feared that I wouldn't stand a chance against Démare, so I tried it on the Moskesstraat".

Sure enough the plan worked, as he had the speed to keep the duo - and the peloton - at lengths of himself, and crossed the line alone. “In the future I would like to do even better in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, yes. Cobblestones are really my thing, but you also have to have a bit of luck in such races," he concluded.