San Francisco Frontiers - Evenepoel returns with victory in Brabantse Pijl

Evenepoel outsprinted fellow Belgian Wout Van Aert after the pair broke clear.

"I surprised myself. I was very fresh," said Evenepoel. "I'm especially pleased with my sprint. I've been working a lot on my explosiveness recently and it's paid off."

The 25-year-old was greeted by a huge crowd on the final circuit in the Brussels suburbs.

He fired up his fans when he attacked 49 kilometres from the line with Van Aert and Briton Joseph Blackmore.

The two Belgians dropped Blackmore on Hertstraat, one of the race's cobbled climbs, with 15km to go.

Evenepoel, the double gold medallist in last year's Paris Olympics, tore shoulder ligaments when he crashed into the open door of a Belgian postal van in December. The injury, he said ahead of Friday's race, "would have ended my career if I had been a tennis or basketball player".

He rode on Friday with a bandage on his right shoulder that is still causing him pain.

He plans to race in the Amstel Gold Classic on Sunday when Tadej Pogacar will join the field.

Evenepoel said in the pre-race press conference that his competitive spirit was reignited by watching races from his sickbed and sofa and seeing Mathieu Van der Poel win Paris-Roubaix last Sunday and Pogacar take the Tour of Flanders, also known as the Ronde, the week before.

"Pogacar is an inspiration," Evenepoel said. "But I have to be able to beat him. That's what my team pays me for."

"It was amazing to see Van der Poel and Pogacar battling it out. It motivated me to push myself in training. I too want to compete at San Remo, the Ronde, and Roubaix one day," he said.

Evenepoel has said that after the Amstel, he plans to ride the Fleche Wallonne on April 23 and the final one-day 'monument' of the spring, Liege-Bastogne-Liege on April 27. After that he will switch to stage racing in the Tour de Romandie, on April 30- May 4, as preparation for the Tour de France, his main objective of his season.

G.Collins--SFF