Peter Sagan sprints to third Gent-Wevelgem win
World champion Peter Sagan out sprinted Elia Viviani and Arnaud Démare to win his third Gent-Wevelgem and become the most successful current rider in the race.
Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale) launched early to set up teammate Sacha Modolo, but Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) reacted the best to beat the rest of the pack.
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| Elia Viviani won De Panne on Wednesday but couldn't prevent Peter Sagan winning his third Gent-Wevelgem Photo credit: cyclingnews.com |
Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) was visibly distraught with himself after the race in coming second, while Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) and Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal) finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The Race
Filippo Ganna (UAE Team Emirates), Frederik Frison (Lotto-Soudal), José Gonçalves (Katusha-Alpecin), Jimmy Duquennoy (WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic) and Brian Van Goethem and Jan-Willem Van Schip (Roompot) made up the day's first break and opened a consistent gap of four minutes.
The escapees stayed away for over 200km, but with the gap down to 54-seconds and fewer than 50km left to race, Alex Kirsch (WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic), Vyacheslav Kuznetsov (Katusha-Alpecin), Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal) and Julien Vermote (Dimension Data) attacked the peloton on the flat roads before the Baneberg climb and successfully bridged to the breakaway just before the last round of the Kemmelberg.
The peloton battled over the punishingly steep Kemmelberg, which in turn whittled down to a rather more select but still large group of sprinters and other strong riders.
As the group of favourites powered across along the open roads in the last 35km, the break began to lose impetus and their lead dropped below 30-seconds.
Despite being swept up with 25km remaining, Frison, Wallays, Vermote, Van Schip and Van Goethem had enough in the legs to stay with the group of Sagan, Démare and Viviani et al. A group of secondary favourites including Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) lay a further 30-seconds behind and were desperately trying to get back in contact.
Unlike at E3 Harelbeke on Friday this group was willing to work together to hold off the Kristoff group. Quick-Step were best represented with four riders and were setting up for the sprint, with Philippe Gilbert, Yves Lampaert and Zdenek Stybar taking turns on the front for Viviani.
The pace was being set so high with fewer than 9km to go that the chasing trio of Kristoff, Cort Nielsen and Valgren were looking unlikely to close the gap that had opened to over 50-seconds.
Into the final 5km and it was Gilbert taking on permanent pace making duties as race came to the business end.
Van Goethem attacked with 2.3km remaining but Gilbert took it upon himself to close the wildcard rider from Roompot. That was followed by fleeting jabs from Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and Wout Van Aert (Veranda’s Willems Crelan) until Vanmarcke lit the touch paper with 500-metres left.
Sagan used Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) to keep out of the wind until he launched to the left-hand side went he noticed that Viviani was boxed in on the right between Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Démare and the barriers.
With three wins and four finishes in the top 10, Sagan becomes the most successful current rider in Gent-Wevelgem.
Despite being swept up with 25km remaining, Frison, Wallays, Vermote, Van Schip and Van Goethem had enough in the legs to stay with the group of Sagan, Démare and Viviani et al. A group of secondary favourites including Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) lay a further 30-seconds behind and were desperately trying to get back in contact.
Unlike at E3 Harelbeke on Friday this group was willing to work together to hold off the Kristoff group. Quick-Step were best represented with four riders and were setting up for the sprint, with Philippe Gilbert, Yves Lampaert and Zdenek Stybar taking turns on the front for Viviani.
The pace was being set so high with fewer than 9km to go that the chasing trio of Kristoff, Cort Nielsen and Valgren were looking unlikely to close the gap that had opened to over 50-seconds.
Into the final 5km and it was Gilbert taking on permanent pace making duties as race came to the business end.
Van Goethem attacked with 2.3km remaining but Gilbert took it upon himself to close the wildcard rider from Roompot. That was followed by fleeting jabs from Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and Wout Van Aert (Veranda’s Willems Crelan) until Vanmarcke lit the touch paper with 500-metres left.
Sagan used Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) to keep out of the wind until he launched to the left-hand side went he noticed that Viviani was boxed in on the right between Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Démare and the barriers.
With three wins and four finishes in the top 10, Sagan becomes the most successful current rider in Gent-Wevelgem.
Gent-Wevelgem 2018 Result
1. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in 5:07:32
2. Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors)
3. Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ)
4. Christophe Laporte (Cofidis)
5. Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal)
6. Oliver Naesen (AG2R)
7. Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott)
8. Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors)
9. Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo)
10. Wout Van Aert (Veranda’s Willems Crelan)
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