Whilst much of the talk pre-race was about the return of multiple-time UCI World Cup winner,
Toon Aerts after a doping ban, Vanthourenhout quickly ensured the headlines would be about his performance. “I had thought in advance that I would slide between the wheels, but the situation allowed me to create a gap. I tried to make that hole as big as possible. I certainly didn't think I would stay away until the end,” he recaps.
"It was just straight forward," he concluded. "Of course I was seriously exhausted at the end, but eight seconds is more than enough.”