Katusha's Alexander Kristoff has won the Tour Of Flanders.
This Monument race in the cycling calendar was over 264.2 kilometres and was from Brugge to Oudenaarde and attracted some big names including Geraint Thomas of Team Sky who was on a new Pinarello Dogma bike which has a shock system to deal with the cobbles, that has been designed by the boffins at the Jaguar factory in Coventry.
Irishman Matthew Brammeier (MTN – Qhubeka), Jesse Sergent (Trek Factory Racing), Damien Gaudin (AG2R La Mondiale), Ralf Matzka (Bora), Clément Venturini (Cofidis), Dylan Groenewegen (Team Roompot) were in the break that formed after twenty kilometres.
Fourteen kilometres later, there was a sprint in Sint-Eloois-Winkel. Matt Brammeier took that sprint with his prize - his weight in beer.
Their lead went out to six minutes with 170kms left as Brammeier and co went over the Tiegemberg, the first climb of the day.
On to the Kwaremont climb and there was a crash which took down a number of riders including Sir Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky who went down on a corner. Wiggins was able to get into the peloton which was six minutes behind the front group that was now without Venturini.
The gap was 3.24 as the riders took on the Paddestraat before Jesse Serjeant was taken by a Shimano neutral service car.
A second rider, this time from FDJ was hit a neutral service car whilst out front Bak and Guardin were away ahead of a second group of Van kerslulck, Roeckx, Greipel, Dillier, Lobato, Drocker, Juul Jenson, Matzaka, Brammeier, Martinez, Selvaggi and Bjorn Thurau and then the main peloton which was joined by British rider Adam Blythe who had punctured.
With 57.3kms left, the lead of Bak and Guardin was down to less than minute and over the Kwaremont, where there were massive crowds, the gao continued to fall.
Gaurdin led on the start of the Paterberg as Bak was caught. Guardin of AG2R lasted another couple of kilometres before he was caught by the peloton which had the likes of Peter Sagan to the fore but not Sir Bradley Wiggins.
Andre Greipel attacked but he was caught so Alexey Lutsenko of Astana tried his luck and was able to take a lead of twenty seven seconds before being caught and joined by Greg Van Avermaet and Olivera.
Geraint Thomas, who had Ian Stannard doing plenty of work for him, was in the front group.
Terpstra started to push on, having been joined by Alexander Kristoff of Katusha, who has been in superb form lately with wins including the Three Days Of De Panne.
They opened up a thirty two second gap with nineteen kilometres left over a group which had Geraint Thomas and Zdenek Stybar doing plenty of work.
Over the Kwaremonth again with a lead of twenty seven seconds over Thomas' group and 1.44 over the third group on the road and then over the Paterberg and Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan were in persuit of Kristoff and Terpstra.
Into Schelde with a lead of sixteen seconds and 8.7kms left, and Kristoff and Terpstra were working well together and they extended their lead to 26 seconds with five kilometres to go.
Kristoff led under the flam rouge and started on the straight road into the finish in Oudenaarde. Greg Van Avermaet started to close the gap but Alexander Kristoff played the waiting game superbly and picked his moment to burst away from Terpstra and win the Tour Of Flanders in a time of 6.26.38 with Niki Terpstra of Etixx Quick Step a dejected second, followed by Van Avermaet some seven seconds later, and then Sagan, Benoot, Boom, Degenkolb, Roelandts, Stybar and Elmiger with Geraint Thomas 14th.
"I'm really happy to win today," said a jubilant Kristoff. "My family is here today and it was a big dream and my big goal for this season and I managed to do it.
"The whole team were great and at the end I came with Niki and he did not really want to work with me which I understand but at the end I went and I am really happy to win and it's a really great feeling."
Source: DSG
