Matteo Trentin held Hugo Hofstetter at the finish line to win the 2022 Le Samyn.
The UAE Team Emirates rider forged clear in an elite group of 8 riders who moved away inside the final 20km of the cobbled finishing circuit, on a day which took the riders from Quaregnon to Dour (209km).
Trentin made the most of his good form to make attacks in the closing kilometres but found himself a heavily marked man by the like of Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Soudal) who would not let the Italian clear.
In the closing sprint Trentin opened up and held his nerve to finish just ahead of Hugo Hofstetter (Arkea-Samsic).
“It was a really good race, extremely hard and aggressive from start to finish”, said Trentin. “As a team we knew we didn’t want it to finish in a big bunch sprint as there were some fast finishers there. Attacks really started from about 50km out, first I went away in a group of 25 and it gradually got narrowed down to just just a few of us. I think today I really tried to make the race instead of following and it worked out well for me in the end. ”
Matteo Trentin is de snelste in de kopgroep en volgt Tim Merlier op als winnaar van de GP Samyn. pic.twitter.com/9OQetlqkcv
— Sporza 🚴 (@sporza_koers) March 1, 2022
