2019 UCI Europe Tour 2019 French Road Cycling Cup | |||||||||||||
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Race details | |||||||||||||
Dates | 24 March 2019 | ||||||||||||
Distance | 198[1][2] km (123.0 mi) | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 4h 31' 29"[1][2] | ||||||||||||
Results | |||||||||||||
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The 2019 Grand Prix de Denain – Porte du Hainaut was the 61st edition of the Grand Prix de Denain one-day road cycling race, held annually around the town of Denain in northern France. Since 2018, the race has traversed several sectors of cobbled roads, including one used in Paris–Roubaix.[3] The Grand Prix de Denain was ranked 1.HC in the 2019 UCI Europe Tour, and it was the second race in the 2019 French Road Cycling Cup series.
Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel, of the Corendon–Circus team, won the race. Van der Poel attacked from a leading group of three riders, including Alex Kirsch of Luxembourg and Trek–Segafredo and Estonian Mihkel Räim of Israel Cycling Academy, and rode over eight kilometers solo to the finish. Kirsch and Räim were caught by the peloton, and Marc Sarreau of Groupama–FDJ won the reduced bunch sprint for second place.[4][2]
The GP de Denain is one of the newer cobbled one-day races on the calendar, having been a race for the sprinters until last year's edition. This time around there was 21km of cobbles, spread over 12 sectors, including the Wallers à Haveluy sector which regularly features in Paris–Roubaix.
Van der Poel went for it again with a brutal attack on the final sector. His companions were left floundering in his wake and were swallowed up by the peloton on the run-in. The 20-second gap looked fragile but Van der Poel was in full solo time trial mode and held strong on the run-in to secure an impressive victory.