The first win of any season must be even sweeter when the margin of victory is as big as the gap Riley Sheehan enjoyed over his nearest challenger at the Circuit de Wallonie on Thursday.
Sheehan produced a dominant uphill sprint from a reduced group to take the win in the Wallonian city of Charleroi, his first victory since his famous triumph at Paris – Tour in October 2023, and was able to celebrate well before the line.
The American was brilliantly supported in the Belgian 1.1 race by six riders from the NSN Devo Team, who produced an impressive, controlled performance across an undulating 196.1-kilometer parcours.
“It was a hard final, with Q36.5 doing crazy attacks, full gas, but my team stayed so calm, and the guys rode so well,” says Sheehan. “There was full gas support for me today.
“In the final, I just had to follow the wheels and, in the final corner, I just had to press on the pedals as hard as I could. It was a perfect job by the team to set me up, so at the finish, I could just do what I can do.”
Despite his winning margin, the 25-year-old American admitted that memories of a near-miss on the line during last season were playing on his mind as he approached the finish.
He adds: “I felt pretty confident once I knew I was coming out of the corner [in first]. I let the gap go a bit [into the corner], so I had a bit of a slingshot.
“But you never know, though, because you always feel like there’s somebody coming up who is going to come around you. I think since the Deutschland Tour last year, when I posted up too early, I’m paranoid.
“I just had to give everything I could there. Thankfully, this time, it was all worth it.”
Sheehan’s participation in the race linked him up with 18-year-olds Oscar Amey and Omer Ramon, Fin Tarling (19), Roei Edinger and Dawid Lewandowski (both 20), and 21-year-old Jens Verbrugghe.
Despite the youthful roster, DS Lahav Davidzon praised the support our Devo Team riders gave to the race winner.
“It was a great day for us,” says Davidzon. “The plan was to sprint with Riley, and we knew we needed to do a hard race from the middle part to drop the pure sprinters. We had young guys pulling, and they did a good job.
“Jens, Fin, Roei, and Dawid were still in the peloton once we got to the finishing circuits – Roei did an amazing job to close the two-man breakaway down, then the others kept the attacks in the final close, and positioned Riley well.
“Riley was calm and smart – he had the best legs, which you could see in the final. It was a real team effort, and we’re super proud of the boys.”
Photos: Pierre-Arthur Suray, Arnaud Guillaume, and Marijke Le Bruyn