2020 Scheldeprijs (1.Pro)

(Grand Prix de l'Escaut), Belgium

108th edition: Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Scheldeprijs podium history | 2019 edition | 2021 edition

Schoten - Schoten, 173.3 km

Caleb Ewan is the day's fast man. Image: Photonews

Weather at the start/finish city of Schoten at 1:30 PM, local time: 13C (55F), partly cloudy, with the wind from the north-northeast at 11 km/hr (7 mph). There is a 55% chance of rain.

The race: The organizer posted this note. "On Wednesday 14 October, the 108th edition of the Scheldeprijs is on the programme. Given the current health situation in Belgium, we as organisation call on you to follow the race at home. It was therefore decided not to release any information about the course."

Here is the organizer's race summary:

The 108th edition of the Scheldeprijs ended with a powerful sprint to the finish. The teams of the top sprinters controlled the race almost perfectly. In that predicted sprint it was the Australian Caleb Ewan who won.

Now that a start in Terneuzen was not possible in the 108th edition of the Scheldeprijs, Schoten became the central point for the oldest Flemish spring classic on the calendar. 10 local laps of 17.3 km. At the start there were many fast men for what is called the unofficial World Championships for sprinters. Ewan, Bennett and Ackermann, among others, competed against each other.

Already in the second lap there was an early breakaway, despite the extremely fast pace in the race. 8 riders escaped: Wirtgen (Bingoal - Wallonie Bruxelles), Schär (CCC Team), Gruzdev (Astana Pro Team), Cavendish (Bahrain - McLaren), Havik (Riwal Securitas Cycling Team), McCabe (Israel Start-Up Nation), Juul-Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott) and Askey (Groupama-FDJ). After the first race, no less than 49 km had been digested.

The breakaway never managed to get a big lead on the circuit in Schoten. The peloton allowed them to ride about 1'25" ahead, but always kept them in sight. With two laps to go Cavendish dropped out of the front group. In the meantime the peloton got closer to the leading group, which still had a 30 second lead.

At the start of the final lap the difference was still about 17 seconds. At the front Askey tried to add a solo escape to his day in the break. The Dutchman Havik joined him, attacked himself and went off on his own. In the peloton it was Deceunick-Quick-Step and Trek-Segafredo who took control.

At 8 km from the finish the story of Havik and the chasing group was over. The peloton controlled the race perfectly and was able to start preparing for the sprint. The trains formed for the sprinters at Deceuninck - Quick-Step, Trek-Segafredo, UAE Team Emirates, Lotto-Soudal and Bora-hansgrohe.

In the last kilometre it was Alpecin-Fenix that brought Merlier to the front and Kristoff was going to prepare the sprint for Jasper Philipsen. Out of Kristoff's wheel, Ewan suddenly came to the front. He sprinted convincingly to victory before Ackermann and Bonifazio. The number two, Ackermann, would eventually be degraded for deviating from his line, resulting in a crash of Jensen, causing Bonifazio to move up a place and Coquard to take third.

This 108th Scheldeprijs  was without a doubt a unique autumn edition. Also for Caleb Ewan, who was able to hit the jackpot after his first participation in the Scheldeprijs.

Complete Results:

173.3 kilometers raced at an average speed of 48.445 km/hr

1	Caleb Ewan	Lotto-Soudal	3hr 34min 38sec
2	Niccolò Bonifazio	Total Direct Energie	s.t.
3	Bryan Coquard	B&B Hotels-Vital Concept	s.t.
4	Tim Merlier	Alpecin-Fenix	s.t.
5	Jasper Philipsen	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
6	Amaury Capiot	Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise	s.t.
7	Arvid de Kleijn	Riwal-Securitas	s.t.
8	Sam Bennett	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
9	Itamar Einhorn	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
10	Romain Cardis	Total Direct Energie	s.t.
11	Nacer Bouhanni	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
12	Michael Van Staeyen	Tarteletto-Isorex	s.t.
13	Alexander Kristoff	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
14	Edward Theuns	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
15	Hugo Hofstetter	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
16	Reinardt Janse van Rensburg	NTT Pro Cycling	s.t.
17	Max Kanter	Team Sunweb	s.t.
18	Davide Martinelli	Astana	s.t.
19	Alfdan De Decker	Circus-Wanty Gobert	s.t.
20	Jake Stewart	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
21	Pascal Ackermann	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
22	Evaldas Šiškevicius	Nippo-Delko Provence	@ 5sec
23	Bert Van Lerberghe	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
24	Guillaume Boivin	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
25	Dušan Rajovic	Nippo-Delko Provence	s.t.
26	Piet Allegaert	Cofidis	s.t.
27	Luka Mezgec	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
28	Ryan Mullen	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
29	Christophe Laporte	Cofidis	s.t.
30	Florian Sénéchal	Deceuninck-Quick Step	9''
31	Jakub Mareczko	CCC Team	10''
32	Rui Oliveira	UAE-Team Emirates	13''
33	Max Walscheid	NTT Pro Cycling	15''
34	Sasha Weemaes	Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise	s.t.
35	Artyom Zakharov	Astana	s.t.
36	Enzo Wouters	Tarteletto-Isorex	s.t.
37	Carlos Rodríguez	INEOS Grenadiers	s.t.
38	Maxime De Poorter	Tarteletto-Isorex	s.t.
39	Lindsay De Vylder	Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise	s.t.
40	Laurens De Vreese	Astana	21''
41	Jasper De Buyst	Lotto-Soudal	23''
42	Alexander Konychev	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
43	Lionel Taminiaux	Bingoal-WB	s.t.
44	Jonas Koch	CCC Team	s.t.
45	Jacob Relaes	Tarteletto-Isorex	s.t.
46	Aksel Nõmmela	Bingoal-WB	s.t.
47	Jack Bauer	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
48	Gijs Van Hoecke	CCC Team	s.t.
49	Tom Van Asbroeck	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
50	Guillaume Van Keirsbulck	CCC Team	s.t.
51	Wesley Kreder	Circus-Wanty Gobert	s.t.
52	Elmar Reinders	Riwal-Securitas	s.t.
53	Yevgeniy Gidich	Astana	27''
54	Sacha Modolo	Alpecin-Fenix	s.t.
55	Barnabás Peák	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
56	Jasper Stuyven	Trek-Segafredo	s.t.
57	Jérémy Lecroq	B&B Hotels-Vital Concept	s.t.
58	Joris Nieuwenhuis	Team Sunweb	s.t.
59	Cees Bol	Team Sunweb	s.t.
60	Nathan Van Hooydonck	CCC Team	s.t.
61	Alexander Krieger	Alpecin-Fenix	s.t.
62	Cédric Beullens	Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise	30''
63	Florian Vermeersch	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
64	Connor Swift	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
65	Julien Vermote	Cofidis	s.t.
66	Jonas Rickaert	Alpecin-Fenix	s.t.
67	Otto Vergaerde	Alpecin-Fenix	s.t.
68	Eduard Michael Grosu	Nippo-Delko Provence	s.t.
69	Jens Debusschere	B&B Hotels-Vital Concept	s.t.
70	Dmitriy Gruzdev	Astana	s.t.
71	Alexander Richardson	Alpecin-Fenix	s.t.
72	Stefan Küng	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
73	Jonas Castrique	Bingoal-WB	s.t.
74	Edvald Boasson Hagen	NTT Pro Cycling	s.t.
75	Mickaël Delage	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
76	Olivier Le Gac	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
77	Fred Wright	Bahrain-McLaren	s.t.
78	Bram Welten	Arkéa-Samsic	s.t.
79	Daniil Fominykh	Astana	s.t.
80	Biniam Girmay	Nippo-Delko Provence	s.t.
81	Julien Morice	B&B Hotels-Vital Concept	s.t.
82	Frederik Backaert	B&B Hotels-Vital Concept	s.t.
83	Danny van Poppel	Circus-Wanty Gobert	s.t.
84	Fumiyuki Beppu	Nippo-Delko Provence	s.t.
85	Milan Menten	Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise	s.t.
86	Fabian Lienhard	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
87	Leonardo Basso	INEOS Grenadiers	41''
88	Jannik Steimle	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
89	Norman Vahtra	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
90	Kaden Groves	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
91	Boy van Poppel	Circus-Wanty Gobert	s.t.
92	Jempy Drücker	Bora-hansgrohe	45''
93	Michael Schwarzmann	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
94	Alexander Edmondson	Mitchelton-Scott	48''
95	Robbe Ghys	Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise	s.t.
96	Kenny De Ketele	Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise	s.t.
97	Roger Kluge	Lotto-Soudal	51''
98	Damien Touzé	Cofidis	52''
99	Piotr Havik	Riwal-Securitas	s.t.
100	Alex Kirsch	Trek-Segafredo	57''
101	Adrien Petit	Total Direct Energie	59''
102	Hugo Houle	Astana	s.t.
103	Gianni Marchand	Tarteletto-Isorex	1' 02''
104	Nikolas Maes	Lotto-Soudal	1' 03''
105	Frederik Frison	Lotto-Soudal	s.t.
106	Niklas Märkl	Team Sunweb	1' 05''
107	Cyril Lemoine	Cofidis	s.t.
108	Tom Wirtgen	Bingoal-WB	1' 06''
109	Florian Maitre	Total Direct Energie	1' 08''
110	Anthony Turgis	Total Direct Energie	s.t.
111	Dries Van Gestel	Total Direct Energie	s.t.
112	Adrien Garel	B&B Hotels-Vital Concept	s.t.
113	Geoffrey Soupe	Total Direct Energie	s.t.
114	Vegard Laengen	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
115	Sondre Enger	Riwal-Securitas	s.t.
116	Daniel Oss	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
117	Rasmus Tiller	NTT Pro Cycling	1' 11''
118	Senne Leysen	Alpecin-Fenix	1' 13''
119	Christian Knees	INEOS Grenadiers	s.t.
120	Sean De Bie	Bingoal-WB	s.t.
121	Francisco Ventoso	CCC Team	s.t.
122	Zdenek Štybar	Deceuninck-Quick Step	1' 15''
123	Rüdiger Selig	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
124	Leon Heinschke	Team Sunweb	s.t.
125	Andreas Schillinger	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
126	Joel Suter	Bingoal-WB	s.t.
127	Sven Erik Bystrøm	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
128	Marco Haller	Bahrain-McLaren	s.t.
129	Tom Bohli	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
130	Chun Kai Feng	Bahrain-McLaren	s.t.
131	Kévin Geniets	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
132	Michael Schär	CCC Team	s.t.
133	Travis McCabe	Israel Start-Up Nation	s.t.
134	Christopher Juul-Jensen	Mitchelton-Scott	s.t.
135	Lewis Askey	Groupama-FDJ	s.t.
136	Marcus Burghardt	Bora-hansgrohe	s.t.
137	Elias Van Breussegem	Tarteletto-Isorex	s.t.
138	André Greipel	Israel Start-Up Nation	1' 24''
139	Ludwig De Winter	Circus-Wanty Gobert	s.t.
140	Dylan van Baarle	INEOS Grenadiers	s.t.
141	Brian van Goethem	Lotto-Soudal	1' 26''
142	Luka Pibernik	Bahrain-McLaren	1' 46''
143	Mark Cavendish	Bahrain-McLaren	1' 47''
144	Samuele Battistella	NTT Pro Cycling	1' 49''
145	Luc Wirtgen	Bingoal-WB	1' 51''
146	Michael Gogl	NTT Pro Cycling	1' 52''
147	Ivo Oliveira	UAE-Team Emirates	s.t.
148	Thomas Boudat	Arkéa-Samsic	2' 22''
149	Toms Skujinš	Trek-Segafredo	3' 06''
150	Tobias Kongstad	Riwal-Securitas	3' 11''
151	Julien Trarieux	Nippo-Delko Provence	3' 19''
152	Christopher Lawless	INEOS Grenadiers	3' 27''
153	Yves Lampaert	Deceuninck-Quick Step	s.t.
154	Sonny Colbrelli	Bahrain-McLaren	3' 38''
155	Kiel Reijnen	Trek-Segafredo	4' 29''
156	Clément Russo	Arkéa-Samsic	5' 09''
157	Christophe Noppe	Arkéa-Samsic	5' 21''
158	Kris Boeckmans	B&B Hotels-Vital Concept	5' 55''