Stannard sees off Quickstep to win incredible Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

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Ian Stannard (Team Sky) retained his title in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with an incredible solo ride against the might and numbers of Etixx-QuickStep. The British rider beat Niki Terpstra in a two-up sprint in a gripping race after taking apart a three-pronged attack from the Belgian team that also included Tom Boonen and Stijn Vandenbergh. However, while credit will go to Stannard for his faultless ride, the race was marked by an utter capitulation from Etixx-QuickStep, who let victory slip from their grasp.

The race-deciding break of four had jumped clear of the reduced peloton with 40 kilometres to go and it looked as though Etixx-Quickstep – with their two Classics leaders both present and accounted for – would determine the final result. However, Stannard clearly had other ideas – allowing the Belgian team to use up vital energy as they sought to hold off a brave chase from Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto-JumboNL) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), before responding and then countering to several attacks in the closing stages of the race.

The first attack strangely came from Boonen - arguably the strongest sprinter in the group - inside the final five kilometres. Stannard allowed the former world champion to create a gap but then reeled the Belgian in with a measured, yet effective chase. The audacity of Stannard's response and his reluctance to see Etixx run away with the race, seemed to catch Etixx off guard and affect their game-plan.

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Terpstra predictably attacked as soon as Boonen’s move had been neutralised but inexplicably he was caught by his own teammate, Vandenbergh.

Seizing weakness and possibly dissention in the ranks, Stannard responded with his own attack inside the final three kilometres. The move was too much for Vandenbergh and Boonen, with only Terpstra able to respond.

Etiix still had another error up their sleeve and duly played their final card with the finishline in site, as Terpstra unnecessarily moved to the front and opened up the sprint. Stannard slipped back, allowing the Dutch rider to set the tempo before edging him out in the final sprint.

How it unfolded

The early break consisted of Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Matt Brammeier (MTN-Qhubeka), Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), Michael Reihs (Cult Energy), Kevin Van Melsen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Louis Verhelst (Cofidis), Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Sean De Bie (Lotto Soudal) and Albert Timmer (Team Giant-Alpecin), who escaped inside the opening ten kilometres and built up a lead of six minutes over the peloton inside the first hour of racing.

They maintained that advantage as they rattled through the first sector of cobbles at Haaghoek after 59 kilometres and over the first climbs, the Leberg and Berendries, shortly afterwards. The first murmurings of a response from the main peloton didn’t arrive until after it crested the summit of the Muur after 83 kilometres, when Etixx-QuickStep, Sky and Lotto-JumboNL began to organise the chase.

On the next passage over the cobbles at Haaghoek, Bradley Wiggins (Sky) took up the pace-making at the head of the bunch, and his efforts, along with those of teammate Bernhard Eisel, promptly shaved another minute off the break’s lead, reducing it to three minutes by the time they hit the day’s fifth climb, the Kaperij.

Brammeier was particularly active at the head of the break, and his forcing on the next obstacle, the Kruisberg helped to whittle the front group down to just six riders – Timmer, Gougeard, Van Melsen, Verhelst and Laborie joined the Irishman – while Wiggins continued his lengthy cameo at the head of the peloton, leading the reduced group over the summit 2:07 down on the escapees.

Sky were still marshalling the bunch as the speed picked up on the approach to what is traditionally the formal beginning of hostilities, the Taaienberg, but once on the climb itself, Tom Boonen took up the reins on his traditional early season test site. The familiar acceleration up the smooth gutter on the right-hand side of the road suggested that Boonen remains the force of old, as a number of contenders, including Sep Vanmarcke (Lotto-JumboNL) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), were distanced.

Indeed, just five riders – Luke Rowe, Stannard (Sky), Van Avermaet (BMC), Edvald Boason Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka) and Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep) – could track Boonen’s move, though their group swelled to 20 or so riders over the summit, with Arnaud Démare (FDJ) among those scrambling across. Only Timmer and Brammeier remained in front from the early break at that juncture, but their margin was down to 45 seconds as the race had begun in earnest behind, and it was clear their time out front was drawing inexorably to a close.

A brief lull over the Eikenberg allowed the a more general regrouping, with Kristoff and Vanmarcke fighting their way back on, but the bunch was now stretched in a long line and there would be no quarter asked or given from there to Ghent. Once onto the Wolvenberg, Luke Rowe struck out alone and his determined effort brought him across to the Brammeier and Timmer with 47 kilometres remaining, but a long, long stint of chasing from Vandenbergh (Etixx-QuickStep) brought them back and meant that the gruppo was about as compatto as circumstances could allow as they entered the final hour of racing.

Etixx detonate the race

That unity was fractured abruptly on the final haul over the cobbles at Haaghoek, when first Vandenbergh and then Boonen accelerated fiercely, bringning Niki Terpstra, Vanmarcke and Steve Chainel (Cofidis) clear with them. Vanmarcke issued a statement of intent when he took over the lead shortly afterwards and his surge propelled them further clear, but his progress was rudely interrupted by a rear wheel puncture as they exited the sector.

It would prove to be a key moment of the race. Boonen didn’t stand on ceremony and he continued with his forcing. When he turned around ahead of the Leberg, he had only black jerseys for company – those of his teammates, Terpstra and Vandenbergh, and that of Sky’s Stannard. Advantage Etixx-QuickStep.

Wisely, Stannard allowed the Etixx trio take up the running over the Leberg, and they quickly established a lead of 30 seconds over a reduced peloton where Lotto-Soudal, Lotto-JumboNL and BMC were scrambling to bring some order to the chase. On the final climb, the Molenberg, Vanmarcke desperately tried to breathe some life into the pursuit with a fierce acceleration, and he brought Van Avermaet and Stybar with him, but there was little to be done against the Etixx-QuickStep express in front.

On the cobbles at Paddestraat with 30 kilometres remaining, Terpstra allowed a gap to open to Boonen, forcing Stannard to come around and shut it down once again, while behind, Stybar and Van Avermaet sat like a dead weight on the eager Vanmarcke’s wheel, though that didn’t prevent the Lotto-Jumbo man from closing the gap to 15 seconds at one point. His efforts were recorded on the chalk board before the leading quartet, which compelled Stannard to help out the QuickStep trio and take a token turn on the front.

By the final sector of pavé, the Lange Munte, the gap was back out to 25 seconds as Vanmarcke began to tire and Van Avermaet – belatedly – offered his help. Terpstra, meanwhile, led the QuickStep flotilla across that 2,500-metre sea of uneven cobbles. The stowaway Stannard was pedalling comfortably in their slipstream, but locked, it seemed, in an impossible situation.

But QuickStep, whether through their own hubris or naivety created the opening for Stannard to exploit. Boonen’s first acceleration was nullified but from there the Belgian team’s strategy and hold on the race quickly began to unravel at an alarming pace.
When Vandenbergh pulled in a move from Terpstra and Boonen was unable to respond to Stannard’s main attack the writing was quickly on the wall but the inquest and post-mortem into Etixx capitulation will take much.

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