Trek-Segafredo’s Mads Pedersen won a compelling edition of Gent-Wevelgem in a four-man sprint finish.

The 2019 world road race champion convincingly beat Florian Senechal (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) into second place and Matteo Trentin (CCC Team) into third after that trio - plus Alberto Bettiol (EF Pro Cycling) - had broken free of an elite lead group of nine riders in the last couple of kilometres.

All eyes had been on favourites Wout van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Fenix) - who were both among the nine - but they marked each other out of contention when Bettiol initiated the decisive move, and they ended up finishing eighth and ninth respectively.

Only Senechal and Trentin followed Bettiol initially, but Pedersen later bridged across and then dominated the sprint finish to claim the biggest Classics win of his career.

Over the 232.5km race distance, runner-up Senechal produced the following data:

Time: 5h18’11”
Avg speed: 43.5km/h
Max speed: 83.5km/h
Avg power: 260w
Max power: 1350w
Power-to-weight: 3.38w/kg
Weighted average power: 330w
Best 2min: 600w (7.79w/kg) on the Kemmelberg