Terpstra wins E3 Harelbeke

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Niki Terpstra became the first Dutchman to win E3 Harelbeke since Steven de Jongh in 2003, after a dominant performance by the Quick-Step Floors team. Terpstra soloed to the line after initially getting away on the Taaienberg with teammate Yves Lampaert with more than 70 kilometres remaining.

Philippe Gilbert made it a 1-2 for the Quick-Step team, with defending champion Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) rounding out the podium. World champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) had another difficult E3 Harelbeke, crashing in the early stages, getting dropped in the final 40 kilometres and finishing over three minutes down.

Quick-Step took the race by the scruff of the neck with more than half the race still to run after a crash held up a large portion of the peloton, including several of the pre-race favourites. The drive, which was assisted by Lotto Soudal, cut chunks out of the advantage of the day's breakaway. With the remaining leaders within toughing distance, Terpstra and Lampaert attacked on the Taaienberg.

With Gilbert and Zdenek Stybar to run interference behind, the Quick-Step pairing built an advantage that the chasers struggled to shut down. As the race hit the penultimate helling, the Karnemelkbeekstraat, it looked like it might be about to fall apart for the Belgian team as Lampaert began to struggle. Terpstra seemed unsure of carrying on alone and held back to wait for his ailing teammate as Gilbert attacked behind.

Lampaert got back on, but Gilbert was stuck in no-man's land and eventually sat up and waited. Lampaert's resurgence didn't last long and it was eventually left to Terpstra to try and bring it home for the Belgian outfit. The group behind - with Van Avermaet and two teammates, Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac), Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) and Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) among others – cut the gap to Terpstra to 12 seconds with three kilometres remaining.

However, they ruined any chance of catching the flying Dutchman by playing cat-and-mouse games, appearing to be racing for second place rather than the victory. Their repeated attacks and lulls slowed the chase and allowed Terpstra to build his lead to 19 seconds, even with a slowdown to celebrate his second win of the Classics.

How it unfolded

It was a cold and blustery start to the day in Harelbeke, but mercifully there was no rain for the peloton. Though the Classics began at the end of February, the 206.1km course with 15 climbs would be the first big litmus test for the Classics riders ahead of next week's Tour of Flanders.

A little after midday, the riders rolled out of town with attacks coming immediately after the flag dropped at kilometre zero. Eventually, a group of eight riders pushed clear and quickly built up a lead of six minutes. Truls Korsaeth (Astana), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates), Lukas Spengler (WB Aqua Protect), Damien Gaudin (Direct Energie), Pim Ligthart (Roompot), Jeremy Lecroq (Vital Concept), and Kevin Van Melsen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) were the lucky eight.

Their lead went up as far as seven minutes when a closed level crossing delayed the peloton. However, a combined effort from Lotto Soudal and Quick-Step quickly brought it back down to a more manageable 5:45.

Peter Sagan's 2017 E3 Harelbeke was hampered by a crash, and he had a sense of déjà vu early on as he hit the deck in a multi-rider pile up. Fortunately, he was up and running a lot quicker than he was 12 months ago and was soon back into the peloton. Aside from Sagan's incident, the opening half of the race was a fairly straightforward affair, but that changed with 108 kilometres to go.

Just as the race approached the halfway point, a crash near the front of the peloton on a narrow road shaped the second part of the race. The peloton had filled out the whole road so when one rider went down it caused a ripple effect through the bunch that saw about a quarter of the field go down. Of those who didn't go down, most were caught behind the crash with nowhere to go.

Several of the main contenders, including Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), Arnaud Demare (FDJ), Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) and Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac), were involved in the incident and left scrambling to get back on the road. Quick-Step had been right on the front and made it through intact.

Quick-Step Floors' to lose

As news came through as to who had lost out in the crash, Quick-Step saw the opportunity to rule them out of contention altogether. With the help of fellow Belgians Lotto Soudal, the drastically reduced peloton put the hammer down. The effect was immediate as Tim Declercq and Iljo Keisse took a minute out of the leaders' advantage in five kilometres. With just under 90km to go, the gap was less than two minutes, while the second peloton was over a minute further back.

With the first chasing group bearing down on them, the leading group of eight began to break into pieces. Gaudin and Ligthart emerged from the ashes of the breakaway and sailed off up the road, delaying the inevitable catch. Behind, Astana were doing their best to bring the race back together, but every time they got closer a surge up front increased the gap again.

With 71km to go, the Taaienberg is often the point were the first major selections begin to take place and Quick-Step used it to break the race further. Former Paris-Roubaix winner Terpstra attacked along with teammate Lampaert, and the pair quickly gained a significant advantage. It wasn't long before the blue duo had caught and dispatched Gaudin and Ligthart.

An elite chase began to form behind with Van Avermaet, Sagan, Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) and Gilbert. With so many Quick-Step riders in the chasing group, Van Avermaet decided to strike out alone, but he was eventually joined by Benoot and Gilbert. Behind, Daniel Oss did a big turn for his team leader, Sagan, but it came to nothing when Sagan was dropped on the Oude Kwaremont.

Lampaert had been working hard, and as he and Terpstra hit the Karnemelkbeekstraat with 31 kilometres remaining, the 26-year-old began to struggle. He was quickly dropped by the stronger Terpstra, who glanced over his shoulder unsure whether to leave his teammate in the pain cave.

The call must have come over the radio, and he eased up to allow Lampaert to regain touch just as Gilbert launched his own attack from behind. It gave them an opportunity to have three riders out front but significantly reduced the gap to the chasers behind. In the end, Gilbert wasn't able to get across and Lampaert was dropped again with 24 kilometres to go.

It was a long way to go solo and Terpstra's advantage was tenuous as the group behind grew when Naesen, Vanmarcke and several others caught the chasing group of Van Avermaet. With three kilometres remaining and the gap falling to little more than 10 seconds, it looked like Quick-Step Floors had got it terribly wrong. However, discord in the chasing group proved just enough to see him across the line 19 seconds clear of his teammate Gilbert, who won the sprint for second place.

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