{"id":349815,"date":"2025-08-16T18:48:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T18:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349815\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T18:48:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T18:48:16","slug":"in-form-corbin-strong-takes-second-at-circuit-franco-belge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/349815\/","title":{"rendered":"In-form Corbin Strong takes second at Circuit Franco-Belge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corbin Strong may have narrowly missed out on a fifth victory in 20 days at Circuit Franco -Belge on Friday, but his impressive summer continued as he finished second in the uphill sprint on Mont de-l\u2019Enclus. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Strong, who finished third in the Belgian one-day race on his only previous appearance (2023), was narrowly beaten by late attacker Jonas Abrahamsen (UXM).<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, off the back of his victories at the the back of his victories at the Tour de Wallonie<\/a><\/strong> and Arctic Race of Norway<\/a><\/strong> in the past three weeks, it was another eye-catching performance by the Kiwi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was coming reasonably fast at the finish line, but yeah, in final 200 metres I could see that he probably had enough to hold on,\u201d says Strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit gutting to come so close to the win because I felt like I had the legs, but, yeah, it was a really hot and difficult race out there today. I think everyone in the peloton was\u00a0struggling more than\u00a0we expected to struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with the course like this, with the hills section starting with like 120km to go, it was always going to be a long and really aggressive final. It was a difficult one to judge for myself, as my strength lies in being in a group at the end. I\u2019m not the one who needs to force the pace on the climbs and try to get away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Itamar<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old<\/a><\/strong> was clearly the fastest on the finishing climb, having once again assisted by an impressive performance by his IPT teammates.<\/p>\n

Home rider Floris Van Tricht<\/a><\/strong> followed a counter-attack from the peloton across to the day\u2019s breakaway group with 55 kilometers remaining, ensuring it stayed within catching distance before it was caught with two laps of the finishing circuit remaining. Van Tricht, together with Joe Blackmore<\/a><\/strong>, then did the bulk of the chasing to all-but shut down a dangerous five-man break instigated by Abrahamsen 35 kilometers from the line.<\/p>\n

However, despite Strong\u2019s seemingly-effortless speed in the final 500 meters, the Norwegian had enough of a gap to hold on to take the victory. <\/p>\n

\"Corbin<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cI think I had the legs to follow the attacks on the climbs, but if I followed every move, then I probably wouldn\u2019t have had the legs to go at the finish. I really had to pick and choose what moments to follow and which moments to save myself. In the end, I think we just misjudged it and Jonas Abrahamsen was strong enough to stay away. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, we probably didn\u2019t misjudge it \u2013 he\u2019s just an incredibly strong rider, and everyone knows if you give him an inch, he\u2019ll take a mile, and he showed that again today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corbin Strong may have narrowly missed out on a fifth victory in 20 days at Circuit Franco -Belge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-349815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115039941911727306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}