On Sunday 2nd of March, Intermarché-Wanty concluded the Belgian opening weekend just off the podium thanks to its sprinter Arne Marit who finished fourth in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
The Walloon World Team, which was not rewarded for its strong collective performance in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad the day before, fought for a ticket in the early breakaway, as Taco van der Hoorn had brilliantly done in the 2022 and 2023 editions.
This time, it was his young compatriot Huub Artz who managed to join the breakaway. For his first participation in the team, Artz stayed in the lead of the race until the final race hour, once all difficulties were behind the back and they were joined by several counterattackers.
After 197 kilometer of racing, the victory was decided in a sprint. The author of the first podium of the season in the Tour Down Under, Marit, added a new good result by finishing fourth. Vito Braet sprinted to twelfth place.
“This is a great result and very good for my confidence. Huub, Dries and Taco made a lot of efforts to represent our team in the breakaway. Thanks to Huub in the front, the responsibility of the chase was on the shoulders of the other teams, allowing us to focus on positioning in the peloton. Vito then focused on all attacks in the early final, while I stayed in the neighbourhood of the other sprinters with Jonas. Together we made a good move to the front with 3 kilometer to go, after which I only had to follow the slipstream of the fastest riders. I launched my sprint with 500 meter to go and finished fourth. After my work in service of the team in the first race half yesterday, I’m very happy I grabbed this opportunity today. Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne is one of the only classics with a sprint chance, that’s why we’ve been training on the parcours since November with the team. Finishing so close to the podium in such a major classic is satisfying. Especially with this level of participating sprinters.”
