Israel Start-Up Nation concluded the Belgian Opening Weekend with another strong result as Jenthe Biermans sprinted to fifth place in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on Sunday.

After Sep Vanmarcke’s podium performance in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad the day before, the morale of the riders was high as they took on the second of the two Belgian classics this weekend.

Early in the race, Biermans proved to be on a good day as he decided to jump from the peloton on the feared Oude Kwaremont ascent. From that point, the race was on. Chasing a strong breakaway, the peloton kept a high pace with several Israel Start-Up Nation riders in the mix. Unfortunately, a crash occurred near the front, which split up the pack into several groups, leaving only Biermans in the front end.

The furious chase continued all the way towards the line with the early breakaway getting caught with just one kilometer left to go. In the sprint, Biermans positioned himself well and produced a great sprint to finish in the top-5 in the race. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) took the win.

Jenthe Biermans: “I tried to attack on Oude Kwaremont but I didn’t get anybody with me, so I decided to stop again. Unfortunately, I lost some positions on the climb and I missed out on the first group, so we started to pull with the team as we had several guys in the group. I don’t really know what happened around the crash but suddenly I was just alone with 15 riders. It was a long chase and I wasn’t really sure if it would come back together or not. When it finally did, I really wanted to do a good sprint as I had had great legs all day long. I’m super happy to make top-5 in a Classic like Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.”

Impressive effort by @jenthe_biermans to finish 5th in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne! Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) took the win.

Good job Jenthe 👊 #YallaISN
________
🇧🇪 #KBK21 pic.twitter.com/UldHPCUKPF

— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@TeamIsraelSUN) February 28, 2021