Steegmans wins Nokere-Koerse

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Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) sprinted to victory at the Nokere-Koerse ahead of Stefan Van Dijk (Veranda Willems Accent) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank) to underline his form ahead of the spring classics.

Steegmans was forced to abandon last week’s Paris-Nice with a fever ahead of stage 4, but he showed no ill effects in Belgium on Wednesday to secure a fine win.

The day’s action was dominated by a four-man breakaway featuring Michael Van Staeyen (Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator), Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Quick Step), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ) and Kenny Dehaes (Omega Pharma-Lotto). In spite of their best efforts, however, the quartet never managed to stretch their advantage beyond 2:15, and they were caught 20km from the line.

The plucky Dehaes had another go in the finale in the company of Gaetan Bille (Wallonie Bruxelles-Crédit Agricole), Rob Goris (Verandas Willems-Accent) and Rony Martias (Saur-Sojasun), but they too were shut down, and 7km from home, Dehaes’ final, solo effort was ended by Katusha’s chase.

The scene was then set for a rapid finale. In the finish straight, Steegmans was the first to launch his sprint and he had more than enough in the tank to hold off the challenges of Van Dijk and Brown to seal the win.

Full Results