Cycling: Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) won the Tour of Flanders. As a soloist, the road world champion prevailed against Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) and Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo) after a gripping, at times spectacular race. It is the Slovak's first triumph at one of cycling's monuments.
An incredible cycling day comes to an end. The Tour of Flanders 2016 will undoubtedly be remembered by drivers and fans for a long time. There were dramatic scenes, unbelievable attacks on the streets lined with spectators and everything that you could expect from a race like this was quite touching. In the end it was Peter Sagan who used the last crossing of the Paterberg to break away from his pursuers and then as a soloist to an impressively superior victory. Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) had to settle for second place after a tough fight. Although André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and Nils Politt (Katusha) had nothing to do with the win, they drove many kilometers in the breakaway group of the day at the front of the race.
The Tour of Flanders started this morning under the Belgian sun in the best conditions, but with a lot of hectic. Within the first 150km there were numerous, sometimes serious crashes, three of which fell victim to Greg van Avermaet (BMC, broken collarbone), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) and Arnaud Démare (FDJ). The failure of van Avermaet, who was in excellent form and had a good chance of winning, was particularly bitter - that with Marcus Burghardt and Michael Schär the BMC team lost two more drivers and Daniel Oss and Taylor Phinney only continued with a few injuries was a disaster for the US team.
Meanwhile, two German professionals were involved at the top. About 90 km before the finish line, André Greipel and Nils Politt caught up with the group that had been leading up to that point, and their lead at that point was between one and two minutes. Meanwhile, a chasing group of around 40 riders had formed behind them, in which the big favorites, Cancellara, Sagan, Stybar, Kwiatkowski, Vanmarcke and Terpstra, were also fighting for victory. Cancellara and his Trek-Segafredo helpers dictated the pace, but the first and ultimately decisive attack came from Peter Sagan.
40km before the finish, the road world champion attacked the only 500m long, but partly 18% steep Taienberg. Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) immediately grabbed the Slovakian's rear wheel and we had the duo back together that had already dominated the E3 Harelbeke. A short time later, Sep Vanmarcke was also able to catch up and thus strengthened the new group, which was able to break away quickly and put a lot of pressure on the drivers at the front. On the Kruisberg, Sagan, Kwiatkowski and Vanmarcke finally caught up with André Greipel's leading group – Nils Politt had meanwhile dropped back into the field.
At the Oude-Kwaremont, Greipel also had to be demolished - nevertheless: great performance by the 33-year-old! The pace at the front was made primarily by the extremely strong Sagan, who already made the best and strongest impression of all the drivers at this point. Meanwhile, Kwiatkowski had to let Sagan and Vanmarcke go, who were alone at the front. Behind him, Fabian Cancellara tried everything to keep his chances of winning the fourth round of the round: With an enormous effort, he passed all the drivers on the narrow road, but couldn't quite close the gap to the duo at the front.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GAium61RVk
The decision was then made on the last climb of the day, the Paterberg. Here it was Sagan who left the visibly exhausted Vanmarcke and pulled away alone at the front. Cancellara was at least able to catch up with the Belgian and still didn't admit defeat. At this point, Sagan had 12 flat kilometers and a four-time World Time Trial Champion breathing down his neck from his first victory at a Monument. After well over 200km, Sagan got everything out of his legs again and was actually able to keep the lead to the finish. Cancellara had also tried absolutely everything, Vanmarcke was unable to contribute anything in the pursuit, he had already lost too much power beforehand. Peter Sagan thus celebrates his first victory at the Tour of Flanders and his first triumph at a cycling monument. Alexander Kristoff won the sprint of the chasing group, finishing fourth behind Vanmarcke and Cancellara.
Peter Sagan was speechless and breathless in the winner's interview and clearly had problems processing what had happened. In the hour of one of his greatest victories, he thought of the sad last week of cycling and dedicated his triumph to Demoitié and Myngheer: "I'm super happy. It was an extremely tough race, flat out from start to finish. I had problems after 100km and had to change both wheels. There were a lot of falls and I have to thank my team who did a great job. It wasn't easy - I had to go for a solo because it's always difficult to work with the other riders. Two of my colleagues passed away in the last week, it's incredibly tragic and I dedicate the win to them."
Final result Tour of Flanders 2016
Driver | Country | Team | Time | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Matthew Hayman | Australia | Orica GreenEDGE | 05:51:53 |
2. | Tom Boonen | Belgium | Etixx - Quick Step | |
3. | Ian Stannard | Great Britain | TeamSky | |
4. | Sep Vanmarcke | Belgium | LottoNL Jumbo | |
5. | Edvald Boasson Hagen | Norway | Team Dimension Data | 00:00:03 |
6. | Heinrich Haussler | Australia | AMI Cycling | 00:01:00 |
7. | Marcel Sieberg | Germany | Lotto Soudal | |
8. | Alexei Saramotins | Lithuania | AMI Cycling | |
9. | Imanol Erviti | Spain | Movistar | 00:01:07 |
10. | Adrian Petit | France | Direct Energie | 00:02:20 |
Leave a Comment