Tiesj Benoot: "To win now, after an absence of seven months… It is great"

Tiesj Benoot has had a roller-coaster year. Having moved to Jumbo-Visma last year he returned to his best level, but has had a career-threatening injury last summer. Now back to competition, Benoot has won for the first time in his home country at Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne.

“It is really great to win like this. I want to dedicate this victory to my friend Fien, my daughter and my parents. They were there in Livigno after my accident. The first few weeks after my fall I was not the most pleasant home. They also played an important role during my rehabilitation," he said in a post-race interview. Benoot broke a neck vertebrae when he was hit by a car in Livigno when he was out training with Wout van Aert last August.

Jumbo had made an early statement in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and today at Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne they were just as impressive. After attacking the race, they had Benoot and Nathan van Hooydonck in the front group of five riders which had the power to hold back the peloton.

The quintet worked together all the way into four kilometers to go, but with the lack of a strong sprint the duo had to attack the group. What followed was a cat-and-mouse game between all riders which saw everyone together into the finishing straight, but there finally Benoot made the attack that sticked, as in sight of the line Tim Wellens did not commit to closing the gap.

“Tim Wellens and Matej Mohoric both bet on the sprint. We were still with two men in the front group and you want to play that out. Nathan started very strong at three kilometers from the finish and Mohoric had a lot of trouble closing that gap," he explained. "I started after the last corner, 800 meters from the finish, and managed to make a small gap. I knew I had to keep going. If they still get back at me, Nathan can still win the sprint.”

It was a brilliant win out of tactics, further celebrated as teammate van Hooydonck sprinted to second, and Christophe Laporte won the fight in the peloton. It was a weekend of outright domination by Jumbo-Visma which will strike quite a lot of fear into rivals for the rest of the cobbled classics.

“If you are not a winner, it is very nice to win once in a while. It may not be a WorldTour race, but it is a beautiful and large one-day classic. I made a big goal of all races up to Liège-Bastogne-Liège. To win now, after an absence of seven months… It is great," he concluded.