Sagan victorious in E3 Harelbeke

Peter Sagan (Cannondale) dominated a highly tactical finale in the E3 Harelbeke, winning from a four-man group by out-sprinting Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) with an impressive turn of speed.

Sagan was up against the two-man Omega Pharma-Quickstep wrecking crew Stijn Vandenbergh and Terpstra, and Thomas, but marked them carefully and then dominated the sprint after earlier splitting the decisive attack. The quartet worked together until 3km to race, then the games began. Vandenbergh tried twice to attack, but Thomas and Sagan took turns bringing him back. The lanky Belgian dove for the 1km to go banner, but Sagan was quick to react. Vandenbergh tried again to surprise the others at a median with 500m to go, but it was not enough to dislodge Sagan, who then won the sprint handily.

Sagan shared his victory with his Cannondale teammates.

"I want to thank the team today, especially my teammate who has the same size bike as me and with swapped bikes with me after about 100km," he said after the podium ceremony.

"I didn’t think the race would go well but I felt better and better. The finale was tough and there was a lot of crashes. On the Oude Kwaremont when we caught the break, I attacked to create a small group and we managed to go all the way to the finish."

"It's good for me to win, it has helped me bounce back after Milan-San Remo."

Thomas said that third was the best he could do in such a tactical finale, especially after having been caught up in a crash and riding the end of the race with his bars askew.

"I think I rode it as best I could," Thomas said. "Going up the Kwaremont I thought I’d just get stuck in, attack and see what happens. Obviously it forced that group away but heading into the final with two Quick-Steps and Sagan it was pretty tough. I just felt I didn’t have the punch that Sagan and Terpstra had, so I thought I’d just gamble it all in the finish. You never know if you don’t see what happens.

"When Vandenbergh went I wanted to be first to go after him and hopefully get a bit of a run to hold off a couple of the others. Unfortunately Terpstra got round me on the line but I gave it everything. That’s all I had and I’m pretty happy with that."

How the race unfolded

Spring sunshine and a huge amount of spectators welcomed the riders in Harelbeke for the 57th edition of the E3 Harelbeke.

Before the start last year's winner Fabian Cancellara received his weight in bottles of Languedoc-wine Château Castigno. The Swiss rider can add those 75 bottles to the 75 he received two years ago. On the sign-on podium Cancellara gave Tom Boonen a moving hug, expressing his compassion for the miscarriage Boonen's partner suffered last week. Two hundred riders left sunny Harelbeke for 212 kilometres through the Flemish Ardennes.

After a fast first hour an early breakaway group included Maxime Daniel (AG2R La Mondiale), Jérôme Cousin (Europcar), Florian Sénéchal (Cofidis), Jay Thomason (MTN Qhubeka) and Laurens De Vreese (Wanty - Groupe Robert).

The cooperation in the group was good and they gained a maximum lead of seven minutes. Once the race approached the hills the gap started coming down as the speed in the peloton increased.

A first major crash in the middle of the peloton took down many riders including Svein Tuft (Orica - GreenEdge) who abandoned the race. In a second crash on the cobbles of the Varent just ahead of the Boigneberg it was Ian Stannard (Sky) who rode into a rider who stood in the middle of the road.

Whereas the race often blew apart on the Taaienberg the tweaked course resulted in a cease-fire of more than thirty kilometres. A regrouped peloton steamed over the unselective ascents of the Knokteberg, Hotondberg, Rotelenberg and Kortekeer. The most spectacular feats were the bike changes for Peter Sagan, a double flat tyre for Sep Vanmarcke, the quiet exit of Thor Hushovd at the Hotondberg and a high-speed crash at the back of the peloton at km 45 where Michel Kreder (Garmin-Sharp) took out three Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise riders.

When approaching the Kapelberg, prelude for the Paterberg and Oude Kwaremont, the five leaders still had nearly 1:30 on the peloton when another big crash in the peloton kicked off the finale. A completely scattered peloton reached the Kapelberg and top favourite Fabian Cancellara was distanced.

The ascent of the steep Paterberg and then the longer Oude Kwaremont blew the race apart. Sep Vanmarcke led on the Paterberg while Geraint Thomas took the race in hand on the Oude Kwaremont. Behind Cancellara kept moving up, this time with Stijn Devolder in support. When coming off the cobbles of the Oude Kwaremont and heading to the newly featuring Karnemelkbeekstraat there were eight leaders and fourteen chasers at about 15 seconds.

On the Karnemelkbeekstraat Sagan swiftly accelerated on a small gear and only Thomas, Terpstra and Vandenbergh were able to hold his wheel. At twenty kilometres from the finish the four leaders had a gap of 25 seconds on eighteen chasers, among those Cancellara, Devolder, Boonen, Degenkolb, Devenyns, Stybar, Bozic, Roelandts, Boasson Hagen, Bozic, Konvalovas, Vanmarcke and early attackers Cousin and De Vreese.

At the cobbles of the Varentstraat the gap grew up to 45 seconds and at the Tiegemberg the gap was nearly a minute. On top of the climb Cancellara attacked in the chase group with only Paolini, Vanmarcke and Boonen being able to hold his wheel. Boasson Hagen led the chase in the descent and brought most riders back to the Swissman except De Vreese, Cousin, Konovalovas and Devolder. With 10km to go the four leaders had a lead of 35s on the first chase group but then Terpstra started skipping pulls.

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