Triple top-10 for UAE Team Emirates at Brussels Classic

UAE Team Emirates placed three riders to the top 10 of the Brussels Classic, a 205.5km 1.Pro race starting and finishing in the Belgian capital.

The race saw the riders tested from the very first kilometers with many ups and downs and different sections of cobblestones.

The Emirati team worked well to protect their sprinter Gaviria until the group split, leaving room for Hirschi and McNulty to look for a result.
In the end, a wrong turn of an organization motorbike led several riders into a wrong corner, leaving the path to victory clear for Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck – Quick Step) who went alone to conquer the Classic.
The two young UAE Team Emirates riders finished 5th and 6th respectively, with Gaviria coming home in 10th.

The words of Sporting Director Allan Peiper: “Today our goal was to win the race with Gaviria. We knew well that the finish would be tough with the ascents to Muur and Bosberg and the two sections of cobblestones, so we had Hirschi and McNulty ready for a possible raid in the event of a splitting of the group which it did.

 
With seven leading the pack, including Hirschi and McNulty, we had a good chance to exploit, but one motorbike took the wrong corner 20km from the finish, taking five riders, including our two, on the wrong path. In this way Evenepoel and De Gendt were able to extend the advantage obtained well and for us there was no chance. ”

Brussels Classic Results:
1.Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 4h28’30 ”
2.Aimé De Gendt (Intermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux) +50 ”
5.Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) + 2’14 “
6.Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) + 2’14 “
10. Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) + 2’16 “