Tom Pidcock said he was "surprised" to beat Wout Van Aert on the home straight of the Flanders Classic, the Brabantse Pijl, on Wednesday for his first win at Ineos since turning professional in February.

The 21-year-old Briton outlasted the field on an energy-sapping course where Italy's Matteo Trentin came third.

Van Aert, 26, and Pidcock had the lead on the field with the younger man lurking at the Jumbo-Visma rider's wheel over the final 200m.

"I waited and waited and when Wout went, I kind of got a little boxed in and then rushed and came past him," Pidcock said.

"Beating Wout van Aert in a sprint is a surprise, but luckily for me he went early," he added.

In his first season at Ineos, Pidcock has impressed with huge rookie performances at the Strade Bianche (5th) and the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (3rd).

Pidcock, Van Aert and Trentin dropped the other contenders on a narrow, cobbled climb 37km from home before their cat-and-mouse run in.

UAE Team Emirates rider Trentin described Pidcock as a worthy winner after the Italian briefly led alone before allowing the pair to catch him to distance the rest of the peloton.

"When I saw Van Aert and Pidcock coming across I decided to ease up a little bit and try and recover," Trentin said.

"The legs were a bit tired in the end and the strongest guy won.

"I look forward to coming back racing on these roads at the World Championships later in the year."

Dutch rider Gijs Leemreize of Jumbo-Visma became the first man to be disqualified for using a dangerous riding position.

The downhill supertuck frame sitting position and the time-trial arms on the handlebars stance are now both banned by the International Cycling Union.

Ruth Winder wins Women's Brabantse Pijl

Ruth Winder's bike throw in the sprint from the six-rider breakaway proved to be instrumental in snatching the victory from Demi Vollering (SD Worx), who threw her arm into the air in an early celebration.

The photo finish images revealed that Winder was the winner of the 6th edition of Brabantse Pijl Dames by millimeters.

Winder: “I am extremely surprised. I came to this race really wanting to be my best, and in the end it played out really well for me. I thought Demi had it! We were sprinting and I threw my bike at the line, but she really celebrated so I thought, “congratulations.” She’s an amazing bike rider and just for me to be second, I was really excited. For me to win is just…yeah..."

“This feels really good. The team has been very good so far, and I have had my best preparations this year that I have ever had. I am really excited that I could do it today.

“At the start we had Lauretta (Hanson), Shirin (Van Anrooij) , Lucinda (Brand) and Elynor (Bäckstedt) all watching the front and really making sure that we were safe. It was a really hard circuit with so many short climbs coming back-to-back-to-back on each other. It was really hard, and coming through the finish with one lap to go I saw Annemiek van Vleuten setting up her teammate Leah Thomas, and I was keeping an eye on Leah as she’s a fellow American and really strong, so I was on her wheel.

"They created this breakaway of six really strong riders, and there were enough from the big teams, and we were really working well together right away. Everyone was committed in the breakaway to roll through.

"I just had to be super patient in the finish, which was super hard for me; I really wanted to attack them all too soon! But I had Giorgia (Bronzini, director) in my ear and she was saying to be patient, and it worked by a centimeter!

“I was pretty familiar with the parcours, we raced here last year and I have done some course study. It’s also exciting that one of the climbs will be in the World Championships this year. It was good – I really like this race."