The 2021 Grote Prijs Jef Scherens was the 54th edition of the

Grote Prijs Jef Scherens Tour of Leuven - Memorial Jef Scherens (until 2021 ''Grote Prijs Jef Scherens'') is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in September in Leuven, Belgium. Since 2005, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. The race is ...

road cycling one day race in and around

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

. It was held on 15 August 2021 as a 1.1 categorised race and was part of the

2021 UCI Europe Tour The 2021 UCI Europe Tour was the 17th season of the UCI Europe Tour. The season began on 24 January 2021 with the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969 – Gran Premio Valencia and ended on 24 October 2021 with the Ronde van Drenthe. Throughout t ...

and the 2021 Belgian Road Cycling Cup. The race course overlaps to a large part with that of the

2021 UCI Road World Championships The 2021 UCI Road World Championships was the 94th edition of the UCI Road World Championships, the annual world championships for road bicycle racing. It was held between 19 and 26 September 2021 in the Flanders region of Belgium. The region w ...

, which are to be held a few weeks later. The defending champion is sprinter

Niccolò Bonifazio Niccolò Bonifazio (born 9 October 1993) is an Italian retired cyclist, who last rode for UCI ProTeam . Career Early career Bonifazio was born in Cuneo. Bonifazio's professional career began in 2013 when he rode as a stagiaire for UCI WorldTeam ...

, who won the 2019 edition as no race was held in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium The COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Belgium on 4 February 2020, when one of a group of nine Belgians repatriated from Wuhan to Brussels was repor ...

. Besides Bonifazio (), other sprinters present included

Tim Merlier Tim Merlier (born 30 October 1992) is a Belgian cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Considered to be one of the fastest sprinters in the world, Merlier has over 50 wins as a professional, including one stage win at the 2021 Tour de France and f ...

(),

Baptiste Planckaert Baptiste Planckaert (born 28 September 1988) is a Belgian cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team . In May 2018, he was named in the startlist for the Giro d'Italia, where he finished 116th overall. Personal life Planckaert, along ...

(),

Nacer Bouhanni Nacer Bouhanni (born 25 July 1990) is a French former professional racing cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2011 to 2023. A sprinter, he was the winner of the 2012 French National Road Race Championships. Although his first Grand To ...

() and

Bryan Coquard Bryan Coquard (born 25 April 1992) is a French cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam . Since turning professional, Coquard has taken more than fifty victories in road racing, primarily in French races – including six stage wins and an overall v ...

(). It was won by the defending champion Bonifazio in the sprint.

Teams

Twenty-two teams were invited to take part in the race. These included one

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an annual ranking system based upon perfor ...

team, six

UCI Professional Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

teams, and fifteen

UCI Continental The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

teams.

Result

References

External links

* Grote Prijs Jef Scherens 2021 UCI Europe Tour 2021 in Belgian sport {{Belgium-cycling-race-stub