Anders Foldager won the Brabant Arrow.
He was certainly not among the big favorites, yet Denmark’s Anders Foldager scored an unexpected victory this Friday at the Brabant Arrow. He won in the final sprint, surprising the main contenders, including Frenchmen Romain Grégoire and Benoît Cosnefroy. It all started with about 30 km to go, when Grégoire and Cosnefroy took advantage in a decisive move.
The Frenchman of Groupama-FDJ United, along with teammates Lorenzo Germani and Kevin Geniets, set fire to the powder on the Moskesstraat. At the very base of this climb, Cosnefroy – badly positioned along with Tim Wellens – was involved in a crash that occurred ahead of him. Despite the setback, the UAE Emirates-XRG rider made a great effort over the next three kilometers, managing to get back on Grégoire and Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin Premier Tech).
The trio was then joined, with 22 kilometers to go, by Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Anthon Charmig (Uno-X Mobility) and Milan Lanhove (Flanders Baloise). Later, Jelle Johannink (Unibet Rose Rockets) also joined them.The gap to the main group always remained minimal, never exceeding 25 seconds. In the penultimate kilometer, the escapees were reabsorbed by the peloton. In the finale, Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) tried an attack with one kilometer to go, but was promptly caught by the sprinters’ teams. The same fate had befallen, with 44 kilometers to go in Overijse, the first breakaway of the day formed by Jonah Killy and Fabrice Lefevre (Tarteletto-Isorex), Cedrik Bakke Christophersen (Unibet Rose Rockets), Michiel Coppens and Bram Dissel (Beat CC p/b Saxo) and Vojtech Kminek (Burgos Burpellet BH).
In the end, Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla) prevailed, ruling a tight group in the sprint. The Dane, already winner of a stage at the Tour de Slovaquie in 2024, thus succeeds Remco Evenepoel in the roll of honor, preceding Quinten Hermans (Pinarello Q36.5) and the two Frenchmen Benoît Cosnefroy and Romain Grégoire at the finish line. A surprise victory that rewarded Foldager’s tactical intelligence and freshness in a nervous and hard-fought finish.
