Heading into the day as one of the pre-race favourites, World Champion Peter Sagan did not disappoint in Belgium at the opening cobbled classic of the season with a strong display just missing out on victory. At the end of 200.8km of racing, Peter, with number 1 on his back, was out paced in the kick to the line after over 50km at the front of the race in the day’s winning breakaway.
“For this time of the season I felt pretty good,” said Peter after the finish. “It’s one month now since my last race, and I’ve just been preparing and training in Sierra Nevada. It was a hard race today and in the finale I felt like in one or two weeks I’ll be better. But for now, it’s already a good sign.”
Sport Director Lars Michaelsen added: “I think the race played out very much like we had expected. We had a morning breakaway and we kept our guys fresh for the part of the race where it all happened.”
The racing kicked off over dry roads in usual fashion, with an early breakaway of 12 establishing itself at the front of the race and quickly establishing a gap. After just 20km of racing the escapees had over five minutes advantage, with the Tinkoff riders concentrating their efforts behind on protecting Peter ahead of the day’s difficulties.
The day’s decisive moment came on the Taaienberg with just over 55km to race when the winning move was formed. Reacting to a strong attack over the short, sharp climb, Peter made his move and jumped across to a small split forming a four-man group in pursuit of the leaders.
Quickly pulling clear of the peloton, the gap soon grew with the addition of those still out front. Working well together, the advantage remained at around a minute before the group was reduced to seven with 25km to go.
Peter piled on the pressure on the final cobbled section of the day with 20km to go, further splitting the group and forming the five riders that would contest the finish together. On the run in to Gent the peloton started to make inroads, closing down the gap but the leaders had enough of an advantage to contest the finish amongst themselves. With the five leaders staying together, Greg van Avermaet (BMC) led out the sprint on the uphill drag to the line and despite pushing hard to come around, Peter could not make up the ground with a runner’s up spot the outcome for the World Champion in his first European outing of the season.
Michaelsen continued: “We saw some nice team work to try and bring Peter in an ideal position on Taaienberg. That’s when the team showed they were really strong together and that Peter Sagan is a champion. I think that nearly going for the win, more than a month after his last race at Tour de San Luis, shows Peter’s strength as a rider. I consider the result of the race positive. I’m happy with the strategy we had and with the fact the team followed it. In my opinion, if Peter had more races in his legs he would have probably won.”
“The break went a bit early,” Peter added. “We worked well together but in the finale I saw the gap was coming down so I made two or three accelerations on the cobbles and this took it out of me. I started to feel the cramps in the final kilometres and Greg is in better shape than me with a few more race days. But there are more important races to come.”
“Also, it was great to race here in the rainbow jersey – it’s a great race with a special atmosphere.”
Tomorrow the team heads to the second in a double header of Belgian races at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne for a second shot at victory.
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Tiesj Benoot: “I can hardly be disappointed with a third place in my first Omloop Het Nieuwsblad where I started as a protected rider. The race exploded at the expected moment, at the Taaienberg. If men like Van Avermaet and Sagan attack, you simply have to follow them. It was still far from the finish, but all top teams were represented in the front of the race, except for Etixx – Quick-Step.”
“I could rely on a fantastic team that reacted to every attempt in the peloton. That says a lot about the atmosphere and the shape of the whole team. Also the riders that were in the front group did a great job. Everyone did his very best to defend our lead. Even Alexis Gougeard, who was at the front of the race all day long. I knew that it wouldn’t be easy to sprint against these riders. I thought for a while that I could try to ride away, but at the end of the Lange Munte it was still about twenty kilometres towards the finish with a strong headwind. So it would be very difficult. Eventually I rode a decent sprint, but Greg was the best and he’s the deserved winner.”
“My third place of today proves that I had a good winter. In Mallorca and Algarve I received the confirmation of that great form, but the Omloop is the first real test. It’s a very good feeling to stand on the podium. It was really nice to be at the start here in my hometown, the atmosphere was simply fantastic.”
