Kittel wins the 2014 Scheldeprijs

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Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) made the rest of the sprinters look as if they were glued to the tarmac, hitting out early in the bunch kick to win the Scheldeprijs over Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) and Danny Van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing).

Omega Pharma-Quickstep did the lion's share of the lead-out, working for Italian Alessandro Petacchi, but it was Kittel who profited, using the tailwind to power away from Petacchi, who faded back to fourth.

It is Kittel's third straight victory in the Belgian classic.

“It really means a lot for me to win here for the third time, especially after a superb job by my teammates," Kittel said.

“I knew that I could go early at the end as we had a tailwind. My plan was to jump 280m from the line and after perfect preparation for the sprint this was made possible. We showed today that we are one of the top teams – we stayed calm and finished the job perfectly. I’m really happy.”

For Tyler Farrar, the 2010 winner of the race and runner-up from 2012, second place was the best possible outcome when up against Kittel, but is yet another sign he is regaining the kind of speed that he was missing in 2013.

"There's no place to begin with Kittel," Farrar told Sporza. "His sprint is on another level. I always want to win, but I'm also happy with second place. We know how strong Giant-Shimano is. They have the best train this season.

"The team did everything possible to put me on Kittel's wheel. I'm proud of them, but I could do nothing against Kittel. But this was a good spring for me, with even a second in Dwars door Vlaanderen."

Danny Van Poppel (Trek) also showed his speed is on the rise, sneaking past Petacchi to get third. The result follows his victory on stage 1 of the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen earlier this year, and chalks his name up with the best of the peloton's bunch sprinters.

"I came close to Farrar, but with Kittel, as is so often the case, I could not begin to overcome Kittel, and knew then that I would not sprint for the win. But I am very happy with a third place in such a big race. This is a very successful outcome. "

How it unfolded

Three days after a tumultuous Ronde van Vlaanderen the Scheldeprijs offered a chance for the big guns to spin out their legs from the cobbles, while the sprinters received a chance to add a Classic on their palmarès.

Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) won the two previous editions and started a big favourite since Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) and André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) could not start due to illness and injury, respectively.

The 102nd edition of the Scheldeprijs departed from the MAS-museum of Antwerp in pleasant, sunny conditions, but a cold wind from the west reminded the riders approaching the sign-on podium that they were not there to catch some sun.

Soon after the start three riders tried their luck. The group included Daniel Summerhill (United Healthcare) but the peloton didn't let them go. A bit later Summerhill’s teammate Alessandro Bazzana had more luck. He was joined by Luke Rowe (Sky), Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana), Jan Ghyselinck (Wanty – Groupe Robert), Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli) and Ivan Balykin (Rusvelo). Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar) tried to bridge across but fell short as the six worked well together and created a lead of more than five minutes.

The Belkin and AG2R team did most of the work in the peloton and brought the gap back down after the first hour of racing. While approaching the first feed zone halfway through the race the speed in the peloton was high. Several riders landed in a group behind the peloton, featuring many names who focused on Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix like Bernhard Eisel (Sky), Thor Hushovd (BMC), Nick Nuyens (Garmin-Sharp), Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Stijn Vandenbergh (omega Pharma – Quick-Step). By that time the gap on the six leaders was down to just over a minute but a closed railway crossing turned things around. The peloton arrived as the crossing opened again but the race jury offered the six attackers back their original lead and – according to Sporza - an additional bonus. Meanwhile the riders in the dropped group managed to take back their position in the peloton.

After the railway crossing FDJ.fr, Giant-Shimano and Belkin led the peloton at a more steady pace and the breakaway group gained back a lead of three minutes. In the following fifty kilometres the gap went up and down between three minutes and 1:30 when hitting the cobbles of the Broekstraat a first time, just before hitting the local circuit of 16.4 kilometres. After the first loop the gap was down to 2:22. The FDJ.fr team and Omega Pharma-Quickstep did most of the work in the peloton and one loop later there were only 1:35 left between the leaders and the peloton.

At 11km from the finish Rowe accelerated in the lead group while Boonen pulled hard in the peloton, bringing the gap down to one minute.

Rowe was brought back by the breakaway, as Fedi tried his chances, but by 2.4km to go all of the leaders were absorbed, setting up the big bunch sprint.

Full Results