Magnier outsprints Philipsen at Elfstedenronde Brugge
A day after winning Dwars door het Hageland, young sprinter Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) doubled up at the more sprint-friendly Elfstedenronde Brugge, out-sprinting Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the bunch gallop.
The conditions were rather better than for the previous day's attritional racing, and with just two cobbled 'sectors' on the 196-kilometre parcours, with negligible elevation over that distance, it was much easier for the teams to control in order to bring the bunch to the line together. In the finishing straight, Magnier glued himself to the wheel of Philipsen who is building towards the Tour, so when the Alpecin rider launched, Magnier was ready to respond. It was close, but the young Frenchman lunged over the line ahead of his rival for an important victory. Best of the rest was Lotto's Elia Viviani.
Top 5
- Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep)
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
- Elia Viviani (Lotto)
- Oded Kogut (Israel-Premier Tech)
- Joes Oosterlinck (Volkerwessels)
