A challenging parcours awaited Development Team dsm-firmenich PostNL on Sunday afternoon as they lined-up for Flèche Ardennaise, with hardly any flat roads throughout the 174 kilometre route. Taking to the start with almost a full squad of first-year U23 riders, the team’s main goal of the day was to ensure that they were in the race and work on the basics on such a hard course. From the flag drop the racing was intense and a large 22-rider group managed to escape from the bunch, with Jacob Bush and Vincent Bodet representing the team. Working well together out front, the group built up a lead of over five minutes and with the majority of teams represented, it was already clear from over 100 kilometres to go that the winner would come from the front. This saw an upping of pace, where Bodet initially dropped in a small group. Bush, who was making his return to racing, held on for as long as he could too but also ultimately had to let go over the climbs.
After the race Bush explained: “The situation at the start was really positive for the boys. We got myself and Vincent into a move which exploded into a bigger group of around 20 guys. We gained time pretty quickly on the peloton behind and ended up with a gap of over five minutes. Personally, this was my first race back after some injury issues the first few months of the season, so it was nice to be in the pointy end of the race once again. The climbs were ridden pretty aggressively very early on and after 70 kilometres Vincent and some others dropped from the break. I could hold on for a bit longer but also dropped after three hours in the move. Of course this wasn’t ideal as we then had no cards left to play in the race with the other boys riding back in the peloton. I dropped back to them and helped where I could with bottles and pulling on some climbs, but after that my day was done. Oli, Mees and Thom continued to fight until the finish for us.”