Sep Vanmarcke breaks three-year dry spell with win at Maryland Cycling Classic

The peloton returned to the USA today with the Maryland Cycling Classic, and it has seen the return of Sep Vanmarcke to his winning ways, taking the win after a strong tactical race out of the day's attacking groups.

The profile was rather flat, however this did not mean there was a calm race, by any chance. Early on in the day the pace was extremely quick, with attacks leading to a large group that went up the road. It was a 12-rider group, which included Toms Skujins and Quinn Simmons (Trek - Segafredo), Sep Vanmarcke and Jenthe Biermans (Israel - Premier Tech), Neilson Powless, Magnus Cort Nielsen and Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost), Nickolas Zukouwsky (Human Powered Health), Nick Schultz and Alexandre Balmer (Team BikeExchange - Jayco), David Lozano (Team Novo Nordisk) and Róbigzon Oyola (Team Medellin - EPM).

With all the main teams represented, the group quickly got a meaningful gap of several minutes, and despite the best efforts of several riders to bridge across, it was mission impossible. The group then headed to victory, with the attacks starting with 25 kilometers to go, and the decisive move happened with 15 kilometers to go as Vanmarcke, Skujins, Zukowsky and Powless went up the road.

With no clear favourite and little chase from behind, the quartet quickly lost it's organization, with all four riders launching their own offensives, but all covered within the flat final circuit in Baltimore. Piccolo soon joined, but EF couldn't make use of their depth. The Italian led out the sprint, in which Sep Vanmarcke launched his move first. Nickolas Zukowsky almost managed to go through but had to settle with second place, whilst Neilson Powless settled with third place.