Rik Van Stenbergen Memorial, Christophe Noppe 5th
Christophe Noppe took the 5th place in this race that closed the calendar of cycling competitions in Belgium.
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On the line
“The Rik Van Stenbergen Memorial ended in a bunch sprint. A breakaway quickly emerged which was controlled from start to finish by the peloton. There were four laps to go, and when we arrived at this part, the stress increased immediately. We had a good race. Connor tried to take his chances; throughout the race we were all well placed. The final sprint was quite tactical. It came down to positioning, and I managed to be in the right place at the right time with the help of my team-mates. This allowed me to take 5th place, one week after finishing the Tour de Vendée in 4th place.
The debrief’
“The race was controlled by the sprinters’ teams present on this event: QuickStep Alfa Vinyl, Bike-Exchange and Alpecin-Deuceunick. The breakaway teams never managed to get too much of a gap. The peloton made tempo and then came back little by little in the final on the break. Christophe Noppe finished in 5th position and was in the fight with the other sprinters of this race, and not the least”.