Kittel wins the prize in Scheldeprijs

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Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) claimed the victory in a rainy 100th edition of the Scheldeprijs in Schoten, Belgium. The German power house won the bunch sprint ahead of Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda) and Theo Bos (Rabobank).

Kittel follows in the footsteps of Mark Cavendish (Sky), who became a father one day before the Belgian race and was not present at the start line.

It was the first victory for Kittel's new team sponsor, Argos, which was announced four days earlier, and a confirmation of the sprinting prowess of the 23-year-old in a race which is often referred to as the unofficial world championships for sprinters..

"I'm really happy to have won the centenarian edition of this race. This is a race every sprinter dreams about so I'm really happy to be on the list of winners," Kittel told Sporza right after the race.

Kittel was delighted with his win but regretted the missed opportunity to duel with Cavendish.

"I look forward to racing him [Cavendish]. When I heard he was not here I was a little disappointed but I think he has a very good reason to stay at home," Kittel said.

Tyler Farrar won the Scheldeprijs in 2010 but this time around he had to settle for second place. The American rider was pleased with his sprint but acknowledged that Kittel was simply faster. "I rode a good sprint but that was not good enough today; Kittel was simply better. Too bad because I was perfectly delivered in the sprint by my teammates," Farrar said.

Third-place Theo Bos was also well delivered in the sprint but the multiple track sprint world champion fell short in the end. "Mark Renshaw did the perfect job but I was on the 11 and in this cold weather that was a tough gear to deal with," Bos said.

A cold rain that fell in the final hour of the race caused a number of crashes, the last of which happened across the finish line. "The weather made it really difficult. The rain started about five kilometer before the finish. You needed to stay in front to stay out of trouble and avoid the crashes," Kittel said.

The peloton set forth from Schoten under overcast skies, and true to the formula, the day's breakaway went early when, after 17km, five riders were given the go-ahead to get maximum exposure for their sponsors.

Breakaway specialists David Boucher (FDJ-Big Mat), Kevin Hulsmans (Farnese Vini – Selle Italia) were accompanied by Kevin Claeys (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Kevin Van Melsen (Accent Jobs-Willems Verandas) and Simon Lambert-Lemay (Spidertech/C10). Two riders set-up the counter-attack but Sven Vandousselaere (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Kin San Wu (Champion Pro System) needed 20 km before they eventually bridged up with the five men in front.

By that time their lead over the peloton was up to more than nine minutes before the end of the first hour. As a result the pace in the peloton increased during the second hour due to the efforts of teams like Garmin-Barracuda and Omega Pharma - Quickstep. Rather quickly the gap was reduced to less than five minutes. The breakaway group was helped by a railway crossing at 100km from the finish line in Schoten as they were able to pass while the peloton was halted for about a minute.

As the first drops began to fall from the skies and the peloton finished its large loop, Tom Boonen came to the front of the race and took a long pull, his furious pace and a number of crashes behind him causing splits in the peloton, but with three small circuits still to race, it was clear that Boonen was simply testing his legs for Sunday's Paris-Roubaix and staying safe on the slippery roads.

With 25 km to go at the cobbles of the Broekstraat Hulsmans attacked his breakaway group once the gap on the first peloton dropped below the minute, taking only Boucher, Claeys and Vandousselaere along. Going into the final lap the peloton was back together while the four remaining leaders were only a handful of seconds ahead.

As the peloton closed in, Hulsmans tried to go it alone, but with 10km to go he too was swept up by the Garmin-Barracuda-led peloton. A mid-pack crash caused another split in the bunch with 4km remaining, as Team Sky came to the fore.

The slick roads took out a few more riders in the final kilometers as Rabobank put in the final push to the line for Theo Bos, but it was Farrar who would open up the sprint only to be overtaken by the big German. Kittel delivered the first victory for his newly minted Argos-Shimano team.

"In the last kilometer I was on the wheel of Rabobank and then Tyler Farrar passed me on the right. At 300 or 250 meters to go he went out to the right side. I just followed him and also went directly into the wind and started my sprint. Theo Bos, Tyler Farrar and me were sprinting to the finish line," Kittel said.

His victory was slightly overshadowed by a horrible crash across the finish line when one of the press photographers was struck by one of several crashing riders, and emergency medics were called to the scene as the podium presentation got underway. Jonathan Cantwell (Saxo Bank) was injured in the incident.

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