After a hard-fought Omloop-Het-Nieuwsblad, where BORA-hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan rode at the front for the final 40km, the UCI World Champion claimed second in a three-man sprint. While unlucky not to take the win, Peter’s strong ride throughout the day shows he is well prepared for the races to come.
The one-day race, which in last year’s edition the UCI World Champion, Peter Sagan, was narrowly beaten to the victory, is the start of the European cycling season, which features some of professional cycling’s most exciting races – the Classics. Taking place in the Flanders region, this UCI World Tour race covers a 198km course, starting and finishing in Gent, with thirteen difficult climbs – several of them cobblestone – separating riders from glory. While the last key climb is some distance from the finish, it’s by no means an easy ride to the finale.
After more than 50km of racing, the day’s first break made its way up the road – a two-man group building an advantage of forty seconds, with a small group of chasers behind them joining up to make a group of six. With a lot of the race still to go, and the favorites biding their time in the bunch, the break wasn’t troubling the peloton yet – in spite of a fairly sizeable advantage.
The race began to heat up on the Taaienberg, where after a crash a few kilometres earlier, a small group of favorites, including BORA-hansgrohe’s Peter Sagan, started to up the pace to bridge the gap to the escapees. The break’s advantage dropped dramatically before the catch was made at 43km. The UCI World Champion made sure the new lead group knew who was in charge, with some powerful efforts to reel in any riders looking to jump off the front. With less than 35km to go, the break started to thin out, the elastic snapping as riders struggled to hang on, from five to four, and then three.
While the chasing bunch was working to bring the gap down, at less than 15km to go, there were still thirty seconds separating them and the lead group, and with such strong riders in the lead three, there was no certainty of a catch being made – the gap actually growing at times. The chasers held off, it all came down to a sprint, with the three battling it out between themselves for the win, the Slovakian rider once again being held off to take second on the line.
After the race, Peter was pleased with his ride after a month away from racing. “You can’t win every day. It was a very hard race and I’m happy to be racing again after Australia. I worked a lot throughout the race, and we went to the finish in the first group and I just didn’t have the legs for the win. I had spent a lot of energy and it was hard to recover for the final sprint. I’ve worked hard these past few weeks, but it was one month without racing – it’s like a copy of last season, but it’s promising for the races to come. The season is long and has just started. I consider this race a very good training and I look forward to the upcoming races.”
“We are very happy with this start to the Classics season. Peter was really impressive today. After 3 weeks of altitude training you always can be beaten by Van Avermeat, I think that’s quite normal, because Peter for sure misses some of the race speed. Also all the other guys did a great job. Three were involved in the big crash, but all are ok. Marcus was a little unlucky when he missed the split in the second group on one of the pavé sections. Big congrats to the whole team for their work today”, admitted BORA – hansgrohe sports director Steffen Radochla.
Tomorrow sees the second race of this tough weekend in Belgium. The 200.7km Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne covers a hard course, with the climbs coming later in the day – including the fearsome Oude Kwaremont – when riders will really be feeling the distance and the previous day’s efforts.
