Taco van der Hoorn has made it specific since November that
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne was one of the big goals of his early season. He had a plan drawn out, he executed it, and every went to near perfection, until he was caught with just under 100 meters to go to the finish by the peloton.
"In November we sat around the table with the sports direction, planning an attack in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, because we believed it was possible to survive the hill zone with an early breakaway. The peloton put pressure on us all day, so we had to accelerate in the breakaway if we wanted to stay ahead until the final climb. In the end we were caught by a group of strong riders a little earlier than I was hoping for, but I managed to follow them well on the last difficulties of the day," van der Hoorn said after the finish, in which he still finished in tenth place .
The
Intermarché - Wanty - Gobert Matériaux rider placed himself in the seven-man breakaway early on, and despite being caught still within the race's bergs, he was clearly on a good day as he resisted the accelerations from within the emerging lead group and then went on the attack in the race's final 18 kilometers alongside Jhonatan Narváez and Christophe Laporte. The trio at times seemed to be within the likelihood of fighting for the win between themselves despite an ever-small gap, but just within the final meters already in the middle of the final sprint, Fabio Jakobsen stormed through with some more sprinters in the wheel.
"That I was still able to react to the attack of Narvaez and Laporte after such a long day in the front was an incredible performance. The victory was within reach and that was what I was aiming for. It was such a bummer when the peloton caught us with 50 meter to go, this was a very good opportunity to win a classic," he added.
Van der Hoorn already had his sights on his next goal, which takes place this Tuesday: "I want to recover well for the GP Le Samyn now, the next Red Cross in my agenda."