Taco van der Hoorn's tactical decision to buy time in hopes of a breakaway sprint resulted in him missing the podium in Sunday's Coure Brussel-Coulomb.

The Intermarché Circus Wanty rider finished fourth from a breakaway group of five with Jumbo Visma finishing 1-2. Tiesj Benoot made a surprise late-race push for the win, and Nathan Van Hooydonk won the sprint for second place.

"So it got harder. Usually I attack in the finals, but there was always one guy behind me, and everyone was behind each other.

"So it was difficult. We gambled for the sprint and hoped there was something left, but there really wasn't."

Van der Hoorn skipped the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad the day before, arriving for the opening weekend in Coure Brussel Koorn after a high altitude training camp in Colombia following the season opener in Australia.

He stated at the start of the race that he would be part of the breakaway group and wore aerodynamic leg warmers throughout the 193 km race.

"I was feeling good. I was better than I thought I would be, especially on the hills. Of course, we all did."

Van der Hoorn broke into the breakaway in the early kilometers, and when the winning move formed over Mont Saint-Laurent with 75km to go, he was able to pull away. In addition to Van der Hoorn, Jumbo-Visma teammates Benoot and Van Hooydonk, along with Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) joined the bunch.

"That was the plan. I was in the breakaway group and the plan was to ride out the hill and hope to stay there until the final. I came back a little bit early and it was a little bit difficult to get away from them on the hill, but I was okay," Van der Horn said. [Van Hooydonk attacked with 5km to go, Benoot jumped with 3.5km to go, and Van Hooydonk attacked again with 3km to go, also under the flamme rouge.

Benoot then jumped along the barrier with 800m to go to win the final stages of the race, with Van Hooydonk in second and Mohoric in third, with Van der Hall and Wellens missing the podium in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Van der Hallen admitted that his fourth place finish this year was as frustrating as his tenth place finish last year.

"It's a little bit the same. It was hard to win, but I was happy to be on the podium."