Bob Jungels solos to impressive Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne win

Solo 15 km victory for the Luxembourg champion, who held the bunch sprint to take the win from the days decisive breakaway

Bob Jungels made it a hugely successful Opening Weekend for Deceuninck-QuickStep with a victory at Sunday's Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, after his teammate Zdenek Stybar won the previous day's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

The Luxembourg cyclist went on a counterattack about sixty kilometers with four other men. 17 km from the finish, he attacked from the group as the peloton closed in on the breakaway and soloed to line just ahead of the Sprinters.

The second Belgian Classics race was 201.5 kilometres long. The roads were wet and there was a lot of wind that produced a tougher race. The peloton rode stayed together until the climb of the Oude Kwaremont where riders like Ian Stannard (Sky), Zdenek Stybar, Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) changed the pace and broke the peloton into pieces.

VIDEO: 2019 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Finish

Some kilometres later, a big group caught the escapees but there was still a second part of the peloton chasing behind. The front group now included the original escapees and other important names for the day like Danny van Poppel (Jumbo-Visma), Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Andre Greipel (Arkea Samsic).

With 62 kilometres to go, a group of five that included Jungels, Naesen, EF Education First's Sebastian Langeveld and Astana's Magnus Cort Nielsen and Davide Ballerini made a move and managed to create a gap from the rest of the breakaway, which was caught.

With 25 kilometres to go, Mitchelton-Scott's Matteo Trentin was involved in a crash and then had to fight to go back to the pack. With 15 kilometres to go, with the peloton chasing the 5 leaders, Bob Jungels attacked while Cort Nielsen, Naesen and Langeveld were left behind and were caught eventually with 8 kilometres to go.

With 2.5 kilometres to go, Owain Doull (Sky) made a move and was followed by Lampaert, Niki Terpstra (Direct Energie) and Lotto Soudal's Jens Keukeleire. Despite this change of speed in the pack, Jungels managed to cross the finish line on his own, taking his second victory of the season after also winning at the Tour Colombia.

Winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege last year, Jungels transferred to Deceuninck-QuickStep's cobbled Classics team this season. He last raced a cobbled Classic when he placed 84th at Paris-Roubaix as a neo-professional in 2013, having won the race as an under-23. After 16th at Omloop yesterday, he soloed to victory here for his second win of the 2019 season after a stage of the Tour Colombia.

He completes an Opening Weekend double for Deceuninck-QuickStep, who took Omloop via Zdenek Stybar yesterday.

2019 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne Top 10

1 Bob Jungels (Lux) Deceuninck-QuickStep
2 Owain Doull (GBr) Team Sky
3 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Direct Energie
4 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
5 Yves Lampaert (Bel) Deceuninck-QuickStep
6 Florian Senechal (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
7 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Lotto Soudal
8 André Greipel (Ger) Arkéa Samsic
9 Jasper De Buyst (Bel) Lotto Soudal
10 Carlos Barbero (Spa) Movistar Team