Alexander Kristoff broke away late on to grab a second Scheldeprijs victory, seven years after his first

Alexander Kristoff (Intermarche-Wanty Gobert) grabbed a stunning victory in Scheldeprijs, riding his luck through the crosswinds early on and then launching an audacious late lone break to cross the line well clear of the chasing pack. Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) out-sprinted Sam Welsford (Team DSM) to grab second, but no one had the pace to catch the Norwegian on a wet and windy day.

Ad/> The 110th edition of the men’s Scheldeprijs began after the women’s edition, Terneuzen the location for the roll out. And it didn’t take long for the action to start, the peloton hitting the exposed Zeeland province where cross winds immediately wreaked havoc on the field.

ScheldeprijsWiebes takes back-to-back victories in Scheldeprijs in a stunning sprint finish2 HOURS AGO Echelons formed just 20km into the 199km race, and the make-up of the front group was such that it seemed those cross winds could be decisive, with the peloton split in two and big names stuck in both halves. Kristoff managed to get into the front group for Intermarche-Wanty Gobert, while Alpecin-Fenix had Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier up front.

BORA-Hansgrohe had Sam Bennett, van Poppel, Jordi Meeus and Ryan Mullen – with Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl the big team to miss out, along with Armaud De Lie of Lotto-Soudal. Quick-Step led the chase but the front group of 14 — Gerben Thijssen (Intermarche-Wanty Gobert) having crashed and dropped back – had enough talent that the decision was made quickly to push on and hope they could take their lead group all the way to the finish line, bucking the trend for bunch sprints.