Inaugured originally under the name Gran Prix de Fay-le-France in 1968, Le Samyn is one of the most overlooked races in the early spring calendar.
The race, which called after his first winner, Jose Samyn (died in an accident in 1969) since 1970 is set in the midweek right after the Opening Weekend of the cobbled classics in Belgium (Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne), but before the among the riders very popular Strade Bianche. That means members of the elite peloton have to choose between Le Samyn and the other one.
Yet there is usually a quality line-up, f.e. Niki Terpstra (Direct Energie) won this race twice (2016 and 2018), he attended the race in 2019 too. We could also watch to race Stijn Devolder (Corendon-Circus) and Lars Boom (Roompot-Charles), who came back to racing in a new team after a season spoiled by injuries. From the World Tour level teams Deceuninck-Quick Step, Ag2R and Lotto-Soudal took the competition according to their line-ups seriously.
The 200 km long route contained a total of 16 sectors of pavés.
The race became lively inside the last 25 km when a group of seven riders was leading the race. This was the situation, when Tim Declercq, usually the pacesetter of the Deceuninck -Quick Step suddenly found himself among the breakaway riders. Meanwhile, the main bunch was controlled by Direct Energie. Terpstra was about to attack. (He already had a good move around 60 km to go.) And his big moment arrived at 14 km. He alongside Lars Boom and Florian Sénéchal (Deceuninck-Quick Step) joined the group at the front of the race. Consequently, 3 Deceuninck-Quick Step and 3 Roompot-Charles rider fought against each other in collaboration with a Lotto-Soudal, an Ag2R and a Wanty-Gobert cyclist and of course, with Niki Terpstra.
He remained the most active rider also in the final 10 km, mostly Boom and Senechal could answer his actions. At 3,5 km to go, these three have distanced from the other members of the group, and the race seemed to be decided among them. But a bit later Declercq and De Gendt were able to catch up. Sénéchal had a helper, a possible lead-out man, therefore his rivals had to do something before it would be too late. Lars Boom attacked, but Declercq’s counter-attack at 1,2 km was so successful, that he had all the chances in the world to ride a solo for his own glory. Especially because everyone was surprised by this development. Nevertheless, Declercq got tired very soon, and his teammate, Florian Sénéchal won the race ahead of Aimé de Gendt and Niki Terpstra.
Top 10
1 SENECHAL Florian (FRA) DECEUNINCK – QUICK – STEP 4:38:20
2 DE GENDT Aime (BEL) WANTY – GOBERT Cycling Team 0:00:00
3 TERPSTRA Niki (NED) DIRECT ENERGIE 0:00:00
4 BOOM Lars (NED) ROOMPOT – CHARLES 0:00:00
5 SERRY Pieter (BEL) DECEUNINCK – QUICK – STEP 0:00:01
6 VANDENBERGH Stijn (BEL) AG2R LA MONDIALE 0:00:01
7 DECLERCQ Tim (BEL) DECEUNINCK – QUICK – STEP 0:00:06
8 REINDERS Elmar (NED) ROOMPOT – CHARLES 0:00:08
9 ASSELMAN Jesper (NED) ROOMPOT – CHARLES 0:00:14
10 MERTZ Remy (BEL) LOTTO SOUDAL 0:00:19