Peter Sagan wins Tour of Flanders

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Team) crushed the opposition to win the 2016 Tour of Flanders by 25 seconds from Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) with Sep Vanmarcke (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) third. Last years winner Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) finished fourth leading home a group of nine riders chasing the leaders.

The first half of the Ronde van Vlaanderen was marred by crashes the most notable being Greg Van Avermaet who broke a collarbone in a crash where four BMC riders went down. Young Belgian Tiesj Benoot and Marcus Burghardt were caught in another crash and withdrew while Milan-San Remo winner Arnaud Demare also abandoned after crashing.

How The Race Was Won

The race winning move came with 33km remaining shortly after the peloton caught the G2 group that included Team Sky’s Ian Stanndard. Sky had four riders in the reduced peloton at this point and after a discussion among them Michal Kwiatkowski attacked less than 500 metres later. Peter Sagan put himself in the right place and followed his wheel as they gaped the peloton.

Behind Fabian Cancellara left the chasing to team mate Stijn Devolder who then eased up as if Sagan and Kwiatkowski were no threat, Vanmarcke attacked out of the peloton bridging to the two in front. In the next 5km Sagan, Kwiatkowski and Vanmarcke worked together putting 30 seconds into the peloton and closing the gap to the break down to 20 seconds before catching them approaching Oude Kwaremont.

Sagan with Vanmarcke on his wheel gaped everyone on the Oude Kwaremont as Fabian Cancellara was closing fast from the peloton with only Niki Terpstra able to follow him bringing a group back onto Cancellara’s wheel after the Oude Kwaremont.

Starting the final climb of the Paterberg Sagan and Vanmarcke had 14 seconds on the chasing Cancellara group, Sagan was too strong on the Paterberg for Vanmarcke and pulled away with ease on the steeper section to go it alone to the finish with 13km left. Cancellara caught Vanmarcke at the top of the Paterberg as the two set about the chase to close the 15 seconds.

Peter Sagan was simply to strong for the two chasers and pulled away to win by 25 seconds from Cancellara who was doing most of the chasing, Vanmarcke conceded second place as Cancellara opened his sprint. Peter Sagan has won his first monument and it was a powerful and tactically brilliant display, he took awhile when initially deciding to commit to the Kwiatkowski attack but once he did there was no turning back and it was only a matter of which of the climbs he went alone on to win.

Champion. pic.twitter.com/KFPecpEXyu

— Adam Blythe (@AdamBlythe89) April 3, 2016

Results of the 2016 Tour of Flanders

Race report by TBL – The Bike Lane