Max Walscheid wins GP de Denain

Cofidis have taken their fifth win of the season and once again it was in France, as Max Walscheid won today's GP de Denain. The German took advantage of the hard chase in the peloton over a late attack, and was the strongest of the bunch in the final sprint.

Floris de Tier (Alpecin-Fenix), Milan Fretin(Sport Vlaanderen - Baloise), Niki Terpstra (TotalEnergies), Yoann Paillot (St Michel - Auber93) and Emiel Vermeulen (Go Sport - Roubaix Lille Métropole) set off on the day's breakaway. A quality group that had the firepower to keep their gap over the first loop over the 200 kilometer race's cobbled sectors.

Some attacks and some crashes influenced the race on the first loop, but the majority of the favourites seemed to be saving their legs and racing conservatively. With 33 kilometers to go the survivors of the breakaway were caught and shortly after in the Maing - Quérénaing sector INEOS took to the front and split the head of the group.

With three riders in Magnus Sheffield, Ben Turner and Jhonatan Narváez they had numerical superiority, with Primoz Roglic and Damien Touze keeping up. Despite the fast pace of the Intermarché-led peloton - with help from other teams after - the group seemed to be going for the victory as it was collaborating perfectly. However the chase in the peloton was too big and everything came back together just before the final kilometer.

Adrien Petit was the first to open the sprint with 300 meters to go, the Frenchman seemed to have the power but launched too early, and in the final meters Max Walscheid went through to take his first win for over two years. He narrowly beated Dries de Bondt for second place, with Petit finishing third.