Boonen wins Gent-Wevelgem

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Tom Boonen was on song again at Gent-Wevelgem, showing prime form and fortune ahead of the Tour of Flanders by out-sprinting Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Matti Breschel (Rabobank).

In a somewhat messy sprint marred by a crash from a Saxo Bank rider who took down JJ Rojas (Movistar) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Boonen sped away ahead of the fall and had plenty of power to hold off young Sagan.

"I've found back my sprint. I'm not the fastest man in the peloton – that's probably Mark Cavendish – but if everybody is tired then I'm one of the best. I wasn't fully recovered from Friday's race and I wasn't the best in the race but we decided straight away that we would try to get a sprint. The Kemmelberg is too far from the finish to try something there," Boonen said.

Runner-up Sagan wasted some energy in a breakaway attempt together with Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) at 25km from the finish in Wevelgem but they were caught back by a large group led by the Omega Pharma-QuickStep troops.

After 235km of racing Sagan lacked the punch to finish ahead of Boonen. "After the last climb of the Kemmelberg I was in a breakaway with Cancellara. I felt good but that was already the case in the Tirreno. It's better to try something then to do nothing at all. In the sprint Boonen was stronger," Sagan said.

Just before the breakaway attempt from Sagan there was a demonstration from Matti Breschel on the Kemmelberg. The Dane left the peloton behind on the steep cobbled climb. "I couldn't go any slower," Breschel joked. "I got beaten by two guys who, right now, are better than me. I felt good today but Boonen is the best right now," Breschel stated.

A nine-rider group stayed away much of the race, but the real story was a split in the field with about 35 km to go. World champion Mark Cavendish (Sky) was left behind in a chasing group and tried to bridge the gap on his own, but never saw the front of the race again.

The breakaway started early in the day with seven riders taking the initiative: Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Koen Barbé (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Thomas Bertolini (Farnese Vini – Selle Italia), Vladimir Isaychev (Katusha), Anders Lund (Saxo Bank), Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator) and Kevin Van Melsen (Accent Jobs – Willems Veranda’s).

Julien Fouchard (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) and Yuriy Krivtsov (Lampre – ISD) were able to bridge up with these seven to form the nine-man group which colored the first half of the race.

The nine gathered a lead of up to ten minutes while riding towards the North Sea. When turning away from the sea the headwind tortured the breakaway group and when riding through the north of France the gap quickly dropped down to seven minutes.

By the time they reached the foot of the often crucial Kemmelberg, the lead for the breakaway was down to 2:15, and Lund and Insausti attacked the rest of the breakaway group. On the second ascent of the Kemmelberg Rabobank's Breschel put on an impressive show, his powerful surge opening a gap in the peloton.

On the following Monteberg, the last climb of the day, riders including Luca Paolini (Katusha), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Steve Chainel (FDJ) attempted to break away, but when Fabian Cancellara came to the front with Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), the duo quickly caught up with the remains of the early breakaway. With 30 km to go they trailed the two leaders by 1:15 with a following peloton of about 40 riders. Behind, a group including sprinters like Mark Cavendish (Sky), André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) and John Degenkolb (Project 1t4i) was quickly losing ground.

With 16km to go the breakaway and the two front groups were all together, but the second half of the peloton with Cavendish was still trailing by 45 seconds. The fast men in front were Boonen, Matthew Goss (GreenEdge), Daniele Bennati (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek), José Joaquin Rojas Gil (Movistar) and Oscar Freire (Katusha).

That gap only grew, and it soon became clear that it could not be closed.  Cavendish did his best to bridge up, but it was not to be.

The pace stayed high as the group went into the finale. Oscar Freire of Katusha opened the sprint, but Boonen is on a roll and proved once again to have the fastest legs.

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