Cavendish prevails in Scheldeprijs

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Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) avoided the carnage of a high-speed crash in the finishing straight to win the Scheldeprijs for a third time in his career.

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) tangled with Wouter Weylandt (Leopard Trek) as they fought for a wheel in the final 200 metres of the race. Weylandt was the first to lose control of his bike and knocked Farrar off balance. The American tried to hold his bike up but went down hard, as a Team Sky rider then hit Weylandt and flew over the top of him.

Cavendish was ahead of the crash, having opted to come off his teammates’ wheel and follow Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) and Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ). He then accelerated past them to take the best line and won by several bike lengths.

“This is a very important win for me for a number of reasons,” Cavendish said on television after hugging and thanking his teammates.

“First of all because this is a very special race for me. It was my win as a professional and then I won a year later. I missed it in the last two years and I’m so happy to be back. Reason number two is that I love racing in Belgium. I’ve had some bad luck in Gent-Wevelgem and wasn’t great in Flanders but this was a chance to win.”

“The team knew what we had to do and they were incredible all day. They chased the break and then set me up. Leigh Howard was incredible in the finale. He had to go early because we were too far back and then he blew. I was lucky that CJ Sutton went for a long one and I went on the wheel. When they went with 500m to go I knew I’d won it. It was a case of just winning it and so I’m really happy.”

Cavendish had only won a stage at the Tour of Oman before Scheldeprijs, with crashes in the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Qatar disrupting his early season. He was also blocked behind the crash that split the peloton at both Milan-San-Remo and Gent-Wevelgem. He had been under pressure to win but can now look forward to the rest of the season.

“I’ve got a busy season,” he said, confirming he will start all three Grand Tours this season. “I’ve done 35 races already this year. I’m just glad to carry on like this. I’ll take a break after Paris-Roubaix and then build up for the Tour de France via the Giro and the Tour de Suisse.”

The early action

With Antwerp bathed in pleasant April sunshine, it seemed inevitable that Scheldeprijs would once again turn out to be a sprinters’ battle. On the flat 200km course towards the Dutch border, it usually needs a strong prevailing wind to fragment the peloton into echelons, but with blue skies and still conditions the order of the day, it was always going to take something spectacular to deprive the sprinters of their grandstand finale.

In this context, it was perhaps not surprising that the day’s principal breakaway formed and forged ahead within 10km of the flag being dropped. When the quintet of David Boucher (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Baptiste Planckaert (Landbouwkrediet), Dieter Capelle (Verandas Willems-Accent), Adriano Malori (Lampre-ISD) and Vladimir Isaichev (Katusha) decided to brave the odds and slip clear early on, they were duly granted a day pass by a peloton content to trundle along in the warm sun.

At the end of the first hour, the break had covered a little over 45km and had five minutes in hand on the peloton, but the gap began to come down gradually thereafter, as HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervélo rode tempo at the head of the pack. Nonetheless, the five up front continued to battle on, with Boucher in particular the driving force on the scattering of cobbled sections that punctuated the course.

With 61km to go, a crash in the peloton saw Arnaud Labbe (Cofidis) come a cropper, while Tom Boonen (Quick Step) was also a faller. The Belgian was back on his bike immediately and suffered only superficial injuries. Meanwhile, the breakaway still had 2:30 in hand on a bunch that was now beginning to stir from its slumber.

Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Damien Gaudin (Europcar) launched an ambitious bid to bridge to the leaders with 52km to race, but their brief rally was quickly stifled as Rabobank joined in the chase behind. Up ahead, the stylish Isaichev was putting in some lengthy turns on the front, but his efforts couldn’t stop their lead from dropping ineluctably on the finishing circuit around Schoten, as the bunch closed within a minute under the 40km to go banner.

Under increased impetus from HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervélo, that lead dropped to 30 seconds with two laps of the 16km-long finishing circuit to go. Another crash saw Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) was eliminated from contention, while Tom Boonen fell for the second time. Once again the Belgian was quickly back in the peloton, but opted not to contest the sprint, perhaps wisely realising it was not his day.

The break was finally reined in 22km from home, with Malori the last of the survivors to be swallowed up, and from there on in, the sprinters’ teams combined to keep the pace high at the head of the peloton. Thor Hushovd’s rainbow jersey was prominent at the beginning of the final lap but he then slipped to the back of the peloton and eventually sat up to avoid the risk of crashing just three day’s before Paris-Roubaix. Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) also eased up, offering his big rival a friendly hand sling before they both rode in to finish four minutes down on Cavendish.

The speed increased as the kilometres to the finish ticked down and everyone began to focus on the sprint. Omega Pharma-Lotto lined out the peloton and then so di Team Sky and Katusha as everyone fought for the best position.

The narrow streets stretched out the peloton in the last three kilometres but all the sprinters were there lined out and ready to go until the Weylandt lost his balance and touched Farrar from behind. Everyone behind them was forced to dive across the road to avoid the crash, while Cavendish was able to take the best line and win comfortable, holding up three fingers to show his three Scheldeprijs victories.

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