Le Samyn: Laurenz Rex awarded victory after premature celebration scare

Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty) claimed victory at Le Samyn, but not without a fright, almost undoing his hard work with a premature celebration.

The Belgian hit the front in a leg-sapping reduced group sprint at the end of the Belgian semi-classic, but as he stopped pedalling and started to raise his arms, António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates) suddenly appeared in the periphery to his right.

Panicking, he quickly dropped his arms back down, shook his head, and was forced into an agonisingly long wait as the race officials reviewed the photo finish.

After around 10 minutes, he was confirmed as the winner and was able to soak it up.

“I raised my arms too early but I didn’t sense anyone behind me. He came with a jump on the line, but I had luck on my side in the end,” said Rex, who claimed the first victory of his career.

Jenthe Biermans (Arkéa-Samsic) rounded out the podium, on a day when the big pre-race favourite, Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) angrily abandoned, crashing while chasing back from a mechanical and remonstrating with his team car before climbing onto his bus with a lap remaining.

A crash-ridden race with a dramatic ending

It was a crash-ridden edition of the Belgian semi-classic, which featured a number of cobblestone sectors on the 26km circuit around Dour and Quaregnon, and in the end it came together for a sprint from a bunch of 30 riders.

The day’s breakaway was caught with 50km to go, triggering a new attack from Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was alter joined by Pavel Bittner (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Thomas Gachignard (Total Energies).

The final lap began with an empty Rickaert getting dropped, with the reduced peloton 25 seconds behind the remaining two leaders. Another strong contender, Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5) went down in a big crash on the tarmac, but what remained of the bunch stormed on and shut the breakaway down through the back-to-back cobbled sectors of Rue de la Roquette and Rue de Wihéries.

Attacks came and went on the run-in, with Rex himself involved as the race became unruly. However, Uno-X came through to impose themselves on the final sector inside the final 3km, and, with things not splitting there, a more controlled run-in ensued.

DSM took it up for Casper van Uden through former Paris-Roubaix winner John Degenkolb but then completely disappeared, while Alpecin and Arkéa both had stints into the wind as the road dragged up in the final kilometre. Biermans launched the sprint off his lead-out man as Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X) opened up in the centre, but Rex was coming off his wheel and, despite a moment’s pause, kicked in two parts to take him out front.

He didn’t notice Morgado, the 20-year-old Portuguese talent, nipping up on his right, and almost as soon as he started to celebrate, he was back down and ready to beat himself up. In the end, there was no need, and his first pro victory was met with a huge sigh of relief.

“The race was magnificent. The team completely believed in me, I was their captain, their leader today, and everyone did what I said,” Rex noted. “In the sprint I was looking at the signs, 250m… I knew it was an uphill sprint so you had to not go too early, and I sprinted with everything I had, with everything the team did for me today.”