Jelle Wallays of Topsport Vlaanderen has won the Omloop van het Houtland.
A 1.1 race on the UCI European Tour, this 199km race which started and finished in Lichtervelde attracted a field of mainly riders from the Benelux countries but did include five World Pro Tour teams.
On a sunny day, 176 riders started and Jelle Wallays and David Boucher were in an early attack which was not allowed to get away and they were caught after fifteen kilmetres.
Nine kilometres later, Wouter Mol and Anders Skaarseth attacked and were joined by Julien Duval after thirty kilometres.
Ten kilometres later, Ronan van Zanbeek and Arnold Fieke took the number of escapers to five when they joined up with Wouter Mol , Anders Skaarseth and Julien Duval.
They had a lead of 6.25 but when they started on eight laps of 10.8 kilometres, their lead was down to 1.30.
After 123km, the five leaders were joined by Dries Devenyns , Jonas Vangenechten , Tosh Van Der Sande, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck , Julien Vermote , Bram Tankink , Arnaud Courteille , Daniel Schorn , Jelle Wallays , Danilo Napolitano , Ike Green, Coen Vermeltfoort , Tijmen Eising , Maximilian Walscheid and Emiel Vermeulen to form an eighteen man group.
Down to sixteen, and with Topsport Vlaanderen chasing, the gap came down to 1.07 and a minute with two laps to go which prompted an attack by Tosh Van Der Sande, Julien Vermote , Bram Tankink , Daniel Schorn , Jelle Wallays and Coen Vermeltfoort.
Vermote tried to attack but Jelle Wallays went inside the final kilometre and won in a time of 4.32.58, two seconds ahead of Austrian Daneil Schorn and Dutchman Coen Vermeltfoort with Tosh Van Der Sande fourth and Julien Vermote fifth.