Galimzyanov prevails in Paris-Bruxelles

Russian sprint stand-out Denis Galimzyanov confirmed his form ahead of the World Championships with a hard-fought victory in Paris-Bruxelles. The Katusha rider out-paced Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ) and Anthony Ravard (AG2R La Mondiale) in the bunch sprint.

"Today everything was perfect on quite a hard course," said Galimzyanov. "We had to race for 220km, most of them with strong headwind. Fortunately, the team worked really well - my teammates were always at the front of the race."

It was the third win of the season for the 24-year-old, and made up for a string of podium finishes this year including a third place in the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen earlier in the week.

The early breakaway of the day included Alessandro De Marchi (Androni Giocattoli), Daniele Ratto (Geox-TMC), Diego Caccia (Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli), Jonathan Hivert (Saur-Sojasun), Matthieu Sprick (Skil-Shimano) and Jurgen van Goolen (Verandas Willems-Accent). They survived until approximately 40km to go.

A serious move threatened to ruin aspirations of a bunch sprinters when, on the day's seventh climb, the Bruine Put, a 21-strong group including Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) Romain Feillu and Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Jens Keukeliere (Cofidis), got away.

Katusha attentively reeled in the move, and despite numerous late attacks, including one by Yohann Offredo (FDJ) on the final climb of the Keperenberg, brought the race back together with 4km to go.

BMC led for two kilometers for Norwegian champion Alexander Kristoff, but an attack with 1km to go by Vacansoleil stirred up the bunch. With 500m to go Haedo jumped, but only served to provide a perfect lead-out for Galimzyanov, as he launched his unbeatable sprint to the line.

Hutarovich could not match the Russian's speed and had to settle for second, while Ravard edged out Stefan Van Dijk to take the third and final podium spot.

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