From what I saw, there wasn't much racing. A. Withen (🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek) was in a breakaway that became a solo breakaway in the circuit, I reckon. When he was caught, or about to be, in the last (long) lap, there was no attack in the hills; on the cobbled sector there were one or two tiny attempts only; then (6 riders of) Lidl-Trek tried to create an echelon on the plateau, but failed to create any split; then Aimé de Gendt (🇧🇪 Q36.5), followed by 4 or 5 other riders, managed to create a little gap, but that gap never became larger than 50 m; so it was a mass sprint. No crash, though.

If only there had been a bit of racing before, the Lidl-Trek or the De Gendt movements could very much have worked. But since no one tried anything before the last 15 km, of course there were still many riders in the peloton, and many fresh riders among them, to make sure it would end in a sprint.

edit: Oh, and I forgot: the results. In those conditions, the ultra-favourite Merlier (🇧🇪 Soudal-QS) won as expected, and very easily. Gaviria (🇨🇴 Caja Rural) brings some welcome points for his team with his 2^nd^place (several bike lengths behinf Merlier). Aniolkowski🇵🇱 and Crabbe🇧🇪, 6^th^ and 7^th^ bring a few relatively interesting points for Cofidis and Flanders-Baloise.

Browsing the results, I see that Caja Rural placed 3 other riders between 10^th^ and 13^th^ and one more in top-20: they really came for the points!