Guarnieri takes sprint win in De Panne

Jacopo Guarnieri (Liquigas-Cannondale) lit up a grey morning in De Panne with a wonderful sprint victory ahead of Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) and Jimmy Casper (Saur-Sojasun). In the battle for overall honours, Bert De Backer (Skil-Shimano) moved into the Three Days of De Panne’s white jersey ahead of the concluding afternoon time trial.

Guarnieri won the sprint from a group of 50 riders that gathered at the front midway through the stage after the wind fractured the peloton and scattered it into various echelons in the opening half of the short stage. A late bid for solo glory from Federico Canuti (Colnago-CSF) was shut down on the finishing circuit, setting the scene for the keenly-contested sprint finish.

In spite of the headwind in the finishing straight, Guarnieri took the brave decision to go early and he had enough in the tank to hold off the in-form Galimzyanov and the experienced Casper, while Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano) had to be satisfied with 4th.

“The wind was very strong and against us,” Guarnieri told Cyclingnews afterwards. “I was riding in fourth or fifth position and then I went from quite early, with around 350m to go. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hold it until the finish but I had really good legs.”

Guarnieri’s Liquigas stablemate Peter Sagan was one of a number of riders who opted not to start the final day in De Panne, but Guarnieri explained that the young Slovak’s absence did not affect the team’s tactics.

“[Elia] Viviani and I are two good sprinters, so today Peter would have worked for us,” he explained, before expressing his delight at taking his first win of the season.

“At Tirreno-Adriatico and Gent-Wevelgem I suffered a lot, but today I felt really good and I knew I could do a good sprint, so I’m really happy,” Guarnieri said.

Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) finished safely in the lead group but surrendered his white jersey to Bert De Backer after the Skil-Shimano rider picked up two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint. De Backer now leads Westra by those two seconds ahead of the afternoon time trial, with Arnoud Van Groen (Verandas Willems-Accent) in 3rd place. A number of time triallists and strongmen, including Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), lie with intent 10 seconds behind the Belgian.

With slate grey skies and steady rain falling over De Panne, it was no surprise that a number of riders opted not to start the final day of the race with one eye already on Sunday’s Tour of Flanders. As well as Peter Sagan, Alessandro Ballan (BMC), Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) and Stijn Devolder (Vacansoleil-DCM) were also among those who felt that their Ronde preparations could do without a morning being buffeted by the wind and rain along the North Sea coast.

That wind contributed heavily to a frenetic first hour of racing that saw the remainder of the bunch cover over 48km as echelon after echelon formed on the way inland through the flatlands of west Flanders. By the time the riders reached the mid point of the short stage, it had fragmented into no fewer than seven separate groups, which riders scattered all over the road.

As the race headed back towards the coast with 57km to go, the strong men’s pressing began to tell, and a rather elite first echelon of around 20 riders formed, including race leader Lieuwe Westra, Sylvain Chavanel, Manuel Quinziato (BMC), Niki Terpstra (Quick Step), Bert De Backer, Denis Galimzyanov and Tomas Vaitkus (Astana).

For a while, they threatened to ride away with the race, but a big effort from a second echelon that included sprinters André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) and Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) saw the lead group swell to 45 or so riders 10km later, with Matt Brammeier (HTC-Highroad) particularly prominent in the service of Renshaw.

Brammeier’s sterling stint at the front ensured the group’s unity at least as far as the day’s sole intermediate sprint, where Bert De Backer took second behind Feillu, snatching two bonus seconds to wrest the white jersey from Westra ahead of the afternoon time trial.

In the final 20km, however, the attacking began again, with Jens Keukeleire (Cofidis) and Boy Van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare) the first to make a bid for glory. Chris Sutton (Sky) and Denis Van Windern (Rabobank) managed to bridge across 3km later, but Vacansoleil-DCM were keeping close tabs on the quartet and they were pegged back.

Federico Canuti was the next to try his luck, but the Italian was caught in the closing stages, and it was left to the fast men to fight it out for victory in De Panne. While Greipel and Renshaw failed to make the anticipated impact, Jacopo Guarnieri was present and correct to record a fine sprint win.