The Quick Step team’s decision to pull Tom Boonen out of yesterday’s E3 Prijs Vlaanderen has proved to be one of great wisdom, with the Belgian star taking the sprint at the end of an exciting race to take the second Gent-Wevelgem of his career. Boonen won what turned out to be something of a sprint royal at the end of the 210km race, beating this season’s eternal second Daniele Bennati (Leopard Trek) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) after British rider Ian Stannard (Team Sky) was caught in the finishing straight.
As usual the day was dominated by breakaways but it was the sprinters who had the final say.
"It's a great win that boosts the morale of our whole team. Everyone did a fantastic job today” Boonen said afterwards. “It was quite an emotion to cross the finish line here. Winning this competition after so many years has a special flavour to it.
“This doesn't make much difference for the Ronde Van Vlaanderen,” he explained, “they're two different things. I need to improve a bit more to be in top form for the Ronde. This week I will only focus on training and resting when I'm not pedalling.
“Back to today's race, Gert (Steegmans) started the sprint and guided me perfectly,” he continued. “The difference between 2004 [when he won his previous edition – Ed] is that Flanders and Roubaix were a dream back then.
“The following year I became a Sunday-race type of rider!" he joked.
"Our team is growing,” said Boonen. “[Sylvain] Chavanel is doing well and so is [Niki] Terpstra and [Gert] Steegmans. Everyone still has a good improvement margin before Sunday's race. We can and must do well. It took some time to find the right mechanisms within the team with all these young and new riders. But we're very well-synched now and I think today's race showed it. Next Sunday we're going to ride a good race."
Early break goes as usual, with one of the usual names
Romain Zingle (Cofidis) was one of the first riders to try to escape, but the peloton was in no mood to let anyone get away in the early kilometres. When irrepressible breakaway artist Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) attacked after 50km though, the Belgian was quickly onto the French champion’s wheel. The two were joined by Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano), Steven Van Vooren (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Bram Schmitz (Verandas Willems-Accent), and the five riders were to be the break of the day.
With the group established the five riders set about building a lead that they could defend when the race finally came to life.
Midway through the race HTC-Highroad suffered the first of a number of strokes of bad luck as Milano-Sanremo winner Matt Goss was forced to abandon the race with a bad cold.
As the five leaders entered the hill zone after 130km they led the peloton by 3 minutes; Schmitz was the first to feel the pace though, and the Dutchman found himself losing contact with the other four on the Mont des Cats, the first of the day’s 14 climbs.
The group was soon to be down to three up front, as Timmer also lost contact.
With 60km to go, the breakaway’s advantage down to 2 minutes, and the Kemmelberg approaching, HTC-Highroad suffered its second piece of bad luck when Cavendish punctured just before the village of Kemmel. The Manx sprinter received a quick wheel change from a teammate but faced a tough chase back on.
The Kemmelberg plays its expected role
On the Kemmelberg the clearly stronger Voeckler led the way ahead of the other two. Behind them Philippe Gilbert (OmegaPharma-Lotto) chose the moment to try and tear the peloton to pieces on the steep cobbled gradients; Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) and Boonen were right on the Walloon’s wheel though, with Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing), Bennati and Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) were also in close attendance.
Cavendish was still trailing off the back as he arrived on the climb, still alone he was yet to be joined by any of his teammates.
On the descent Mathew Hayman (Team Sky) put in an attack; the Australian was quickly joined by 2001 race winner George Hincapie (BMC Racing) and Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank-SunGard).
The activity on the climb had cut the breakaway trio’s lead down to 1’42” with 55km, and seven more hills, to race.
On the Monteberg, the race’s eighth climb, Voeckler was clearly the strongest once again and was visibly waiting for the other two as they made their way up behind him. Meanwhile the chase group behind was joined by Geoffroy Lequatre (RadioShack) as it hovered just in front of the splintered peloton.
The next rider to bridge to the Hayman group was World champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) but the five still didn’t have much of a gap over the peloton.
At the back the HTC-Columbia team was still pacing Cavendish back in, having gone back for the Manx sprinter after his pre-Kemmelberg puncture.
Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) were the next to jump across the gap, making seven chasers. Soon afterwards Gilbert managed to get across with Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana), making a group of nine; the gap to the peloton though was negligible.
The breakaway tires; well, some of it does…
With 50km to go Voeckler, Zingle and Van Vooren held 1’12” over the chasers but the two Belgians were visibly tiring. On the Rodeberg, Voeckler was again the class of the break, dancing on the pedals as the other two struggled to match his pace.
As the chasers hit the climb Iglinskiy attacked the group; the gap to Voeckler’s group was now just 1‘03”; the other riders gave chase with the peloton at their heels.
As the chase hit the bigger roads at the top of the climb the peloton made contact once more. Jeremy Hunt (Team Sky) took control of the front of the peloton with the Quick Step pair of Steegmans and Sylvain Chavanel behind him. With the gap down to less than a minute, on the approach to the Scherpenberg with 45km to go the peloton was now in three pieces.
On the approach to the Kemmelberg for the second time Borut Bozic attacked, just as Gilbert punctured. The OmegaPharma-Lotto captain got a quick wheel from a teammate and some “technical help” from his team car, as a mechanic briefly makes an adjustment to the rear of his bike, helped him to rejoin before the climb.
Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) joined Bozic as the race passed through the narrow streets of Kemmel; Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) came down on a corner, effectively ending the British champion’s race.
Voeckler now decided that there was nothing more that his two Belgian companios could do for him; the French champion dropped Zingle and Van Vooren on the steep cobbles of the Kemmelberg and, deciding not to wait, he set off alone.
Tjallingii and Bozic were caught on the approach to the Kemmelberg, and Sagan was the one to force the pace as the peloton hit the steep cobbled slope. Flecha was attentive once again, jumping on to the Slovak’s wheel, but none of the race’s favourites were very far away.
The lone Voeckler led by 36 seconds as he passed over the top of the climb, with 40km to go; Zingle was caughton the climb, but Van Vooren managed to hang on just ahead of the charging Sagan.
The attack over the top came from Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) this time, with Sagan and Flecha right behind him. The rest of the favourites were very close though and the three riders were not able to get far.
As the chasers reorganised after the climb the lone Voeckler now had just an 18 second advantage.
On the rolling approach to the Monteberg, the final climb of the day with 35km to go, Pozzato stretched his legs as Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Cannondale) attacked. Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) brought it all back together again though, only for Dwars door Vlaanderen winner Nick Nuyens (Saxo Bank-SunGard) to have a go himself.
Voeckler was now just 11 seconds clear as he approached the Monteberg; Van Avermaet joined Nuyens and the two Belgians had the Europcar captain’s tricolore jersey in their sights.
All over for Voeckler but another Frenchman goes
With 35km to go the front group finally caught up with Voeckler; with one Frenchman caught though, another immediately went on the attack as Chavanel put in a blistering acceleration.
The Quick Step rider was quickly joined by Stannard and the Liquigas-Cannondale duo of Sagan and Maciej Bodnar. At this point Danilo Hondo’s race came to an end as the German sprinter punctured; he had no teammates around him and so had no chance of rejoining the front of the race.
Gilbert put in an attack to try to bridge to the leading four; the Belgian had a whole load of riders strung out on his wheel though, and he was unable to make it. Next it was the turn of Hushovd but, with the peloton trying to reorganise itself after the disruptive hill zone, the quartet suddenly had a 28-second lead with 30km to go.
The teams not represented up front were doing their best to get organised inot a cohesive chase; Quick Step, Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale though, had other ideas and were sending their riders forward to spoil the chase.
Finally HTC-Highroad took it up but the gap was still widening; despite having been off the front of the race for the best part of 120km Voeckler now took it upon himself to join the chase. The French champion was now working for Europcar teammate Sébastien Chavanel, whose elder brother was up the road ahead.
Despite the greater organisation though, with 25km to go the gap was up to 38 seconds.
Up ahead the two Liquigas-Cannondale riders appeared to be doing the lion’s share of the work, particularly Bodnar; behind them, despite a number of teams chasing, the peloton was so broken up there are only one or two riders from each team available.
Meanwhile Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) and Stefan Van Dijk (Verandas Willems-Accent) had broken away and were marooned between the break and peloton.
Another group to chase, and more bad luck for HTC-Highroad and Sky
The teams on the front were now much more organised, with Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad) putting in some big turns, and the gap was steadily creeping down. With Goss, and now Mark Renshaw, having abandoned the race the team had just Cavendish and defending champion Bernhard Eisel to ride for, but this all changed with 21km to go as a crash hit the back of the peloton.
A number of Team Sky riders hit the ground, including Hayman, Hunt and CJ Sutton and the crash spelled the end of the race for Cavendish. The Manxman didn’t actually come down himslef but was stopped as a falling Francisco Ventoso’s bike hit his back wheel. It was surely too late for the Missile to get back to the front of the race now.
Up front HTC pulled off the chase, increasing the chances of the four up front, but Cavendish was left to chase alone a minute behind; with only Bak and Eisel left in the race there was no one left to go back and help. Hushovd, Pozzato were also stranded behind the crash, along with Aussie sprint trio Robbie McEwen (RadioShack), Allan Davis (Astana) and Michael Matthews (Rabobank).
With 18km to go the four fugitives led by 27 seconds, and the gap remained stable for some time. On the long, straight roads towards Wevelgem though, the peloton, now down to just 50 riders or so, had them in sight.
Saxo Bank-SunGard and OmegaPharma-Lotto was doing lions share now, with a number of riders each; Boonen and Steegmans were lurking just behind them though.
Pablo Lastras (Movistar) had a brief dig, but was countered by Gilbert; Steegmans was on his wheel though, and the rest of the group latched on. The acceleration had the effect of catching De Gendt and Van Dijk, and also cutting the lead to just 18 seconds with 14km to go.
The gap crept out again though, as Gilbert pulled off and Liquigas-Cannondale interfered with the chase once more. BMC Racing then took up the chase on behalf of Van Avermaet, while Voeckler was still up there working for Chavanel junior.
The finish is in sight but who will make it there first?
With 10km to go the lead was down to 22 seconds and now began to come down as the four riders ahead began to count the cost of their efforts. OmegaPharma-Lotto and BMC Racing were working hard with Cofidis, HTC and Voeckler, who was still there!
The peloton was now one long line on the arrow straight roads and the gap was down to 8 seconds at the 5km banner; a big turn from Stannard lifted the gap back up to 12s though, but it was not to last and as the break passed through the crowds in Menen with 4km to go it dipped back down to 8 seconds.
Gilbert was burying himself on the front of the race once more, on behalf of OmegaPharma-Lotto sprinter André Greipel this time.
With 3km to go the four up front became three as Bodnar, having given everything for Sagan, finally had to sit up. His team was still spoiling the chase though and so it still looked possible that the 21-year-old Giro di Sardegna winner might still make it.
The group becomes one as a lone attack almost makes it
As the threesome passed under the 2km banner they had just 7 seconds, but Stannard jumped his companions and managed to get a gap. Chavanel and Sagan were both looking very tired by now and as the Briton passed under the flamme rouge with 1km to go he had a healthy gap with the two of them stuck midway between him and the peloton.
Chavanel and Sagan were quickly swept up by the speeding peloton, whereupon the Quick Step team quickly took control. As Stannard swept into the finishing straight it was Steegmans who was breathing down his neck with Boonen on his wheel.
The brave British rider’s lone effort came to an end with 250 metres to go as Steegmans launched Boonen towards the line. The former Belgian and World champion opened up his sprint and no one else was able to come close; the photograph for second place between Bennati and Farrar was less than a length behind Boonen but he was already celebrating his second victory in the race.
To cap an unlucky day for many of the sprinters, Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) and Yoann Offredo (FDJ) crashed into one another after the finish as they came into contact with a photographer.