Kittel wins Scheldeprijs for 5th time

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Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) made his fifth career win in the Scheldeprijs look easy, taking out the sprint in Schoten from the front in a dominant fashion over Elia Viviani (Team Sky). Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) was third.

The victory came after a late crash disrupted the peloton, but Kittel avoided the carnage, and had a perfect lead-out from teammate Matteo Trentin.

"It was fantastic work from the team, Tom Boonen was strong in the finale. I was happy he could help me so much. Fabio Sabatini was caught up in the crash, but Matteo Trentin was very good and very smart in the lead-out," Kittel said.

"I think it's now a pretty good record so far. Schoten feels a little bit like my living room. I'm always happy to win here again and to see the fantastic spectators. It's one of my favourite races," he said, confirming that he will forgo the Giro d'Italia. "I won't be in the Giro. Fernando [Gaviria] will be our sprinter there in the team. I will take some rest now and restart my training, and then ride the Tour of California as I build up to the Tour de France."

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How it unfolded

Kittel's victory in the 105th edition of Scheldeprijs was somewhat overshadowed as Belgium celebrated the career of Tom Boonen, who toed the line on home soil for the final time before his impending retirement after Paris-Roubaix.

The race kicked off from his home town of Mol and all eyes were on 'Tommeke' as the peloton wound through his stomping grounds before his grandfather dropped the flag for kilometer 0.

Kittel was the top favourite for the race, but thanks to the attention on his teammate he was not stormed by the media when signing on. "It's a nice experience to be here with Tom Boonen. It's a great motivation too. It's also my last race for me with him. The pressure is on," Kittel said.

It wasn't long before a breakaway was established, with Roompot the most assertive in ensuring they were represented. Pim Ligthart (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) led the way with Marco Mathis (Katusha-Alpecin), Christophe Premont (Verandas Willems-Crelan), Stijn Steels (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Julien Stassen (WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect) and Eugert Zhupa (Wilier-Triestina).

They were allowed a five minute lead after 52km, as Boonen soaked up the adoration of his fans. Quick-Step Floors came moved forward to keep the gap under control. After two hours of racing the gap was down to three minutes and it kept dropping until the race reached the halfway point and the feed zone.

The gap went down to 2:15 at 80 kilometres from the finish but then the chase calmed down. Riders from Cofidis, Lotto-Soudal, LottoNL-Jumbo and Team Sky joined Quick-Step in front of the peloton, all having fast men in their ranks.
Nevertheless, the gap increased again up to nearly three minutes at 70 kilometres from the finish.

At the first of three passages of the finish in Schoten, the advantage for the leaders was down to 1:40. For the usual suspects in the northern classics, there was no pressure. Luke Rowe (Team Sky) was working in front of the peloton while world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was picking up bottles for his teammates at the team car. André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) flatted when the peloton was racing at high speed but the experienced German rider never panicked.

The pace in the peloton never eased off completely and at 38 kilometres from the finish the gap dropped under the minute.

Ligthart accelerated to try and breathe some new life into the fading escape, but only served to shake Premont loose, and soon Mathis was distanced, too.

Zhupa took the lead on the penultimate traverse of the cobbled Broekstraat, and distanced everyone but Ligthart - but two against an increasingly energized peloton was not enough. They were reeled in with 19km to go, and the sprinters' teams kept the pace high to discourage any further attacks.

Boonen himself came to the fore of the Quick-Step train with 7km to go to keep the pace high for Kittel, but FDJ, Bora-Hansgrohe and Sunweb challenged for control of the front.

A crash with 4km to go near the front of the group took down a huge number of riders and delaying Greipel, but Sagan was fortunate to have avoided the mayhem. But he pulled off the front soon after, happy to finish the race risk-free.

Sky led into the final turn for Viviani, but Quick-Step was on the wheel with Kittel tucked into a perfect position. He took the sprint from the front and easily cruised to his fifth career win in the race.

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