On one of the few Flemish Classics “made” for the sprinters, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team unfortunately could not rely on its fast man this Sunday. After crashing during the first part of the race on Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Paul Penhoët was even forced to abandon. From then on, Lewis Askey tried to open the race from afar, but the bunch sprint proved inevitable. The British rider got back into the fight and took sixteenth place.
The second act of the “opening weekend”, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, was once again expected to host a great fight between the sprinters and the attackers on the 2025 edition. On Saturday evening, through its sports director Frédéric Guesdon, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team claimed it was ready for both scenarios. Unfortunately, the situation changed hugely after some seventy kilometres of racing on Sunday. While the bunch was still calm behind the breakaway, Paul Penhoët suffered a crash. “The race wasn’t even on,” said Frédéric. “He found himself very far away, he was able to come back, so we thought it was okay, but he warned us quite early that he wouldn’t make it. A few climbs further, Marc [Madiot] took him. We found ourselves without our sprinter, and without a sprinter in Kuurne, it gets complicated.” This is also why, with almost a hundred kilometres to go, Lewis Askey made the very first attack in the peloton. “The best way for us to get a result from then on was to attack,” said Frédéric Guesdon. “Lewis had good legs, he went for it.”
“I’ll take away the positive side”, Lewis Askey
The British rider first managed to get away with Timo Kielich before the duo was joined by Jhonatan Narvaez. Their advantage then increased to thirty seconds before Mont-Saint-Laurent. “The team told me to attack on the climbs, and that’s what I did,” said Lewis. “However, the idea was to take more guys with me. Three wasn’t enough, and we also lost Kielich with a puncture. It was still a good move because from then on, I always stayed in front, and I found myself with the groups that were attacking from the peloton.” After an hour of fighting or so, a big peloton eventually bunched up. Despite a few attacks here and there, a sprint looked certain after the difficulties ended, fifty kilometres from the finish. With two fresh men joining, the morning breakaway was able to stay away a bit longer, but everything came back together twelve kilometres from the finish. A peloton of about a hundred riders therefore headed towards the sprint, with an obvious intense fight for positioning.
“With Paul’s abandon, the guys told me to sprint,” Lewis said. “I was slowed down by a crash with four kilometres to go, but Johan helped me get back in front before the final straight. I still had the legs to do a good sprint, unfortunately I didn’t choose the right wheels. It’s really something I have to work on because yesterday and today, I didn’t manage to get the result my legs deserved for that reason.” Jasper Philipsen claimed victory, while the young Englishman took sixteenth place, after his tenth the day before. “I’ll take away the positive side, meaning that I managed to show up here with a good level to fight with the best,” he said. “The feelings of the weekend are mixed,” concluded Frédéric. “It was very good on Saturday, even if we weren’t rewarded as we should have in terms of the result. Today we had a younger team and the circumstances made it more difficult to get a result. We have to keep going, while also hoping that Paul gets less unlucky. Because unfortunately, once again, it wasn’t his day.”
