Boonen wins Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne

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Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma QuickStep) closed out a dominant performance in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne to hold off Moreno Hofland (Belkin) in a tight sprint in Belgium on Sunday. The Omega Pharma leader made it three wins in the one-day race - a new record - after superb work from his team.

Belkin and Omega Pharma split the race to pieces with over 70 kilometres remaining, positioning strong contingents of their squads in a 10-man move. Despite chase efforts from Sky, Lotto Belisol and Katusha, the break stayed clear.

Boonen was joined by teammates, Stijn Vandenbergh, Matteo Trentin, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Nikolas Maes (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Sep Vanmarcke, Moreno Hofland, Maarten Wynants (Belkin), Johan Vansummeren (Garmin-Sharp), Yves Lampaert (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), and the 10-man break quickly established a lead of over a minute.

"This first small record is hopefully the start of more records later this season," Boonen said.

"Our plans were completely different to what we did. Once we were up the road I thought the peloton was playing around with us. I figured we should drop back. Then it got serious. Trentin was supposed to lead out the sprint but he reacted on the first attack. Maes took over but he had cramps. It was chaos."

The race started under bright skies and with an electric pace. A group of four eventually sailed clear and animated the first hours of the race, featuring Vladimir Isaichev (Katusha), Silvan Dillier (BMC), Gert Jõeäär (Cofidis) and Michaël Vingerling (Team 3M).

The four had a maximal lead of four minutes, but with Omega and Lotto keen to make up for mediocre showings in Omloop, the break was given little leeway.

After climbing the Cöte de Trieux, the Belkin team increased the speed in the peloton, creating splits. Shortly after that acceleration, the Oude Kwaremont was climbed with Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step) setting the pace. On the descent to Berchem, the peloton split further with both Belkin and Omega looking to put Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) under pressure.

The aggression immediately paid of with a select group quickly forming under the guidance of Boonen and Vanmarcke. The rampaging Belkin-Omega axis quickly caught the four leaders after 120km of racing and just as quickly, left them behind. When reaching the Tiegemberg at 65km from the finish, the lead group had a gap of nearly a minute on the first peloton. At Nokereberg the gap was 1:10 on the peloton.

In a scene similar to that from last year's stage 13 of the Tour de France from Tours to Saint-Amand-Montrond, in which Belkin, [Saxo] and Omega Pharma-Quick-Step formed a coalition, the two leading squads pitted their strength against the might of Sky and Lotto.

Slowly, the gap started to come down and after passing through Waregem, the Katusha team added some numbers in front of the peloton. With the gap hovering around a minute, the leaders began the local circuit with two laps of 16km around Kuurne.

Team Sky quickly gave up on the chase. Nevertheless the gap remained at about a minute during the first local lap. Luca Paolini (Katusha) did a lot of work in the peloton but without much more support, the race was lost for the peloton. The gap was still just over a minute when the peloton hit the final lap.

And with that the chances of Greipel and the remaining sprinters winning the race were gone.

Up ahead, the work rate and commitment remained in place. Wynants attempted a solo move in a bid to shake up Omega, but the status quo was reinstated by the Belgian team's might.

Into the final corner, Boonen appeared to pick the wrong line but with a quick adjustment he regained the right wheel and even though Hofland threatened to come around, the Belgian king of Kuurne had enough to hold on.

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