NTT Pro Cycling's Giacomo Nizzolo finished behind Casper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quickstep), who won the Cune Brussel Cune in Belgium on Sunday, and ahead of Alexander Kristoff of UAE Team Emirates at the Finish.

"It's never good to win a sprint for second place," Nizzolo said in a video posted on the NTT Team website.

Asgreen successfully jumped into the day's main breakaway group with 30km remaining in the second race of the opening weekend. Asgreen chased down only two riders, Roy Jans (Alpecin Phoenix) and Boris Valle (Bingoal-Wallonie-Bruxelles), and then Jans and Valle pulled away from the rest of the pack to take a memorable solo victory in the West Flemish town of Couleur.

"I had a good feeling all day today," said Janss.

Meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates put Mikkel Bjarg in a breakaway group, but when he suffered a rear wheel puncture on the climb up Aude Quaremont with 50km to go, his teammate tried to lead sprinter Alexander Kristoff to victory. When Asgreen proved unable to catch up, the Norwegian missed Nizzolo in the sprint and had to settle for third place on the podium.

"When I made my first choice on the climb to Quaremont, I knew I had good legs," Kristoff told the UAE Team Emirates website. Christophe told the UAE Team Emirates website: "I was a little bit early in the sprint, but I knew I had a good leg. I was a little bit early in the sprint, but still a good result for me.

"Yesterday didn't go as planned, so I'm really happy to be on the podium today," he added, referring to his failure to place in Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which was won by Trek-Segafredo's Yasper Stuyven.

"Bjarg also had a strong run, but had the misfortune of a flat tire. But considering the level of competition here, I think a podium finish is a good result for the opening weekend."