Stuyven launched a surprise attack inside the last kilometre at Ardooie in this International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour event.

Behind him a moment of hesitation gave him a small margin which he held until the finish, crossing in 3 hours 44min 46sec.

Australia's Caleb Ewan of MTS and Zdenek Stybar, the Czech rider representing QST, completed the podium, given the same time.

Tomorrow the riders will head from Sint-Pieters-Leeuw to Lanaken for a 204.4 kilometre stage.

Following his win, Stuyven is sitting 19th in the standings, 53 seconds behind leader Mohoric.

The Slovenian has an overall time of 11:48.28 and is three seconds ahead of Begium's Sean De Bie, with Switzerland's former leader Stefan Küng, riding for BMC, at 22 seconds.

 "I'm not thinking about the general classification," Stuyven said.

"The fact that there's no Ardennes stage this year is a disadvantage for me, but I'm taking things day by day.

"My goal is to keep fighting for stage wins over the next days.

"With a couple of good results a good classification will follow."

Meanwhile, Team Sunweb won the Ladies Tour of Norway team time trial.

Eleven months after winning the world title in Bergen, the Dutch team was again fastest in Norway, covering the 24.3km course in 29min 53sec.

Mitchelton-Scott finished as runner-up, 38 seconds slower, and Cervélo-Bigla rounded out the podium 1:09 minutes behind.

The new event replaced the prologue which had presaged the 2017 Ladies Tour of Norway.

The three scheduled stages get underway tomorrow.