Fabian Cancellara (Trek) joined Tom Boonen, Johan Museeuw, Eric Leman and Fiorenzo Magni on the list of riders with most wins in the Tour of Flanders when he triumphed in the 2014 edition of the Belgian classic. Unlike last year when he had taken a solo win, Cancellara was unable to drop Sep Vanmarcke (Belkin) on the Kwaremont and the Paterberg and the duo bridged across to the earlier attackers Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) and Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) after the final climb. The Swiss kept his calm in the game of cat and mouse before producing a powerful sprint to hold off Van Avermaey and Vanmarcke with a big margin.

 

Fabian Cancellara wrote his name into the history books when he took his third win at the Tour of Flander in a very animated 2014 edition of the Belgian classic. Despite being isolated in the final 50km and being up against a strong Omega Pharma-Quick Step team, he used a combination of strength, speed and tactical savvy to come away with the victory at the end of a very selective race.

 

On the new, much harder course, Cancellara found himself isolated when a small group of favourites emerged after the Koppenberg 45km from the finish and the situation was a dangerous one as the formidable Omega Pharma-Quick Step teams had no less than 4 riders in the group that had emerged. A dangerous group with Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Dries Devenyns (Giant-Shimano) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) exploited the situation to take off and the move looked as a dangerous one as none of the favourites had any teammates to support them.

 

With 36km to go, Cancellara played with the muscles for the first time when he accelerated hard on the Taaienberg to catch Vandenbergh and draw clear an 11-rider group. He combined forces with fellow favourite Peter Sagan (Cannondale) to close down the attackers but again the isolated duo were vulnerable to attacks.

 

Greg Van Avermaet and Stijn Vandenbergh benefited from the situation to take off and as all the favourites were looking at each other, they managed to build up a 1-minute gap. Things were looking good for the front duo until a bigger group with several Cannondale riders rejoined the favourites 20km from the finish.

 

Maciej Bodnar took a huge turn for Cannondale to reduce the gap ahead of the Oude Kwaremont where Cancellara made the expected attack. Unlike last year, Sagan did not even try to match his speed but instead another rider took on the fight as Sep Vanmarcke stayed glued to his wheel.

 

The duo built up a big gap over the top and worked well together as they approached the leading duo. On the final climb of the Paterberg, Cancellara dropped Sagan in last year's edition of the race but this time it was the Swiss who came under attack.

 

Vanmarcke made a fierce acceleration and Cancellara had to dig really deep to get back onto his wheel. At the top of the climb, they had caught Vandenbergh and Van Avermaet decided to wait for them a little later.

 

With Vandenbergh just following wheels, the other three riders worked well together to keep a hard-chasing Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) at bay and when it seemed safe, they started to play the game of cat and mouse. All riders made attacks at different points but as no one had any success, it all came down to a sprint finish.

 

In Milan-Sanremo, Cancellara had again proved his excellent turn of speed at the end of a long hard race when he had taken second in the Italian classic. Today he underlined his skills again as launched his sprint less than 200m from the line to take a very comfortable win ahead of Van Avermaet and Vanmarcke.

 

An impressive Kristoff rolled across the line in 5th while Niki Terpstra and Tom Boonen made it another two Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders in the top 10. A disappointed Sagan finished outside the top 10 as he was beaten by John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) in the sprint of the first bigger group.

 

With the win, Cancellara has marked himself out as the man to beat when the cobbled classics continue in a week's time at the Paris-Roubaix. In between the two monuments, many of the riders will be at the start of Wednesday's Scheldeprijs which should be one for the sprinters.

 

A harder course

The second monument of the season, the Tour of Flanders, took place over a 259km course from Brugge to Oudenaarde and as usual it was a tough affair dominated by hellingen and cobbles. The course had been changed to make less room for recovery in the finale and during the day the riders would go up 17 hellingen and pass 6 flat pavé sectors. As usual, the decision was set to be made on the final two climbs of the Kwaremont and Paterberg and from the of the latter, only 14 flat kilometres remained to the finish.

 

The race took off at 10.30 CEST under a cloudy, rainy sky from the Grote Markt in Brugge where a lot of people had assembled to greet the riders on the biggest day of Flemish cycling. The riders rolled for 15km through the neutral zone, with the many fans lining the roads indicating that this is one of the really big races of the year.

 

Aggression from the start

As soon as the flag had dropped to signal the official start, a Lampre rider made the first attack and even though he had no success, his attack kickstarted a very hectic phase of the race. With team tactics set to play a very important role in the race, all teams were very attentive to make sure that the early break was the right one and it took more than an hour for the group to finally go clear.

 

Alex Dowsett (Movistar) was one of the most active but the Brit failed to make it into the move that finally took off. In fact, the group that finally went was a very strong and big one, containing 11 riders with some big names among them.

 

A very strong break

Taylor Phinney (BMC), Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE), Wesley Kreder (Wanty), Raymond Kreder (Garmin), Davide Appollonio (Ag2r), Andra Palini (Lampre-Merida), Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Katusha), Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen), Romain Zingle (Cofidis), James Vanlandschoot (Wanty), and Stig Broeckx (Lotto Beliol) opened up a gap but the peloton was unwilling to let the elastic snap for quite some time. Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM) set off in pursuit as he tried to bridge across the short gap.

 

Finally, the peloton decided that it is time to take a small breather and the advantage went up very quickly. It reached more than six minutes while it seems that Saramotins fell back to the peloton.

 

Crashes take out key riders

In the hectic opening phase there was a bad crash that brought down Johan Le Bon - one of the FDJ leaders for today - and Luke Durbridge. Unfortunately, the latter who was one of four Orica-GreenEDGE captains, was out of the race. A little later, two separate crashes took out Martin Elmiger (IAM) and Johan Vansummeren (Garmin).

 

With a big, strong group up the road, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Cannondale, and Trek started to chase as Nikolas Maes, Edward King and Jesse Sergent did the early work. They got a bit of help from Androni but when King finished his job, all the work was left to Sergent and Maes for a very long time.

 

Appolloio punctures

Appollonio punctured out of the lead group while a little later Impey also had a flat tire. Unlike the Ag2r rider, however, the strong South African rejoined the leaders.

 

With 153km to go, the real race started as the riders were about to hit the Oude Kwaremont for the first time. This forced the speed to go up as the battle for position was now intense and the gap went down to 5.20.

 

The first climb

Omega Pharma-Quick Step won the battle as Iljo Keisse and Marco Bandiera (Androni) led the peloton up the climb. As Maes went back to work over the top, the main group started to splinter as several riders had now fallen off the pace.

 

A lot of punctures marred the race but the peloton again slowed down as Maes and Sergent went back to work. Meanwhile, Wesley Kreder was the next rider to puncture out of the lead group and after a long chase effort he got caught by the peloton.

 

Roelandts out of the race

With 124km to go, disaster struck for Lotto Belisol when their captain Jurgen Roelandts crashed out of the race. The tumble was one of many in a very crash-marred race.

 

On the Molenberg, the front group started to split up as Palini, Kreder, Wallays and Broeckx started to struggle. Things got back together but on the Paddestraat pavé a little later, Palini and Kreder fell off for good.

 

Boonen tests his legs

During the run-in to the Molenberg, the battle for position was intense and when they hit the slopes, it was no less of a figure than Boonen who decided to test his legs. The Belgian opened a small gap but quickly slowed down to wait for the peloton.

 

Over the top, Maarten Tjallingii (Belkin) tried to exploit the situation to make two small attacks but he had no success. As things again slowed down, a big crash in the middle of the peloton brought down Stijn Devolder and Gregory Rast (Trek), Mirko Selvaggi (Wanty), Alan Marangoni (Cannondale) and several other riders and the peloton split into pieces as a consequence.

 

Devolder and Rast return

Omega Pharma-Quick Step kept riding hard on the front with Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Maes. Moments later, Trek were hit by more bad luck when Yaroslav Popovych crashed out of the race.

 

MTN, Europcar and Sky chased hard in a second big group to bring things back together. Devolder, Rast, Geraint Thomas (Sky) and Boasson Hagen were some of several riders to get back into contention with 100km to go.

 

Crash for Gallopin

More bad luck struck for Lotto Belisol when Tony Gallopin was brought down and he had to spend quite some energy to get back. Meanwhile, Omega Pharma-Quick Step will still leading the race, always with Van Keirsbulck and Maes doing the work.

 

On the Valkenberg, Wallays got dropped from the front group which was now down to 6 riders. At the same point, the aggression started from the peloton as Mitchell Docker (Orica-GreenEDGE) used a reduced speed to take off.

 

Aggressive racing

Michael Schär (BMC), Matteo Trentin (OPQS), Thor Hushovd (BMC), Markel Irizar (Trek), Kenny Dehaes (Lotto), Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) were some of the riders who tried to join him but they never got clear. Omega Pharma-Quick Step went back to work with Maes and a little later Sergent was also back on the front, bringing back Docker.

 

Again the peloton slowed down a bit and this allowed Damien Gaudin (Ag2r) to give it a go. No one reacted and so he opened a nice gap but when Vladimir Isaychev (Katusha), Manuel Quinziato (BMC), and Michael Schär (BMC) also tried to ride aggressively, OPQS went back to work to bring everything back together.

 

A dangerous trio

On the Kanarieberg, a dangerous situation occurred when Quinziato made another attack. He was joined by Trentin and Bernhard Eisel (Sky) and as no one reacted, they quickly had a big gap.

 

No one reacted as the peloton came to a complete standstill until FDJ started to chase with a single rider. With 66km to go, Cannondale finally reacted when they started to chase hard with Paolo Longo Borghini and a little later Trek joined them as Sergent was back on the front.

 

A battle for position

Several crashes happened at this hectic point of the race and things only got even more stressful when the battle for position for the Oude  Kwaremont started. Astana and Tinkoff-Saxo both had small stints on the front but it was Belkin who took control in the final part of the run-in as Van Emden, Tom Leezer and Robert Wagner did an amazing work.

 

Giant-Shimano hit the front as they hit the narrow roads and then the peloton again slowed down. Kenneth Vanbilsen (Topsport) exploited the situation to take off as he tried to bridge across to the chase trio.

 

The peloton explodes

On the Kwaremont, Zingle and Vanlandschoot and later also Kuchynski fell off the pace. Eisel was dropped from the chase group as Bodnar set a hard pace in the peloton for Cannondale.

 

Quinziato also fell off Trentin's pace while Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEDGE) attacked from the peloton to join the Italian. Bram Tankink (Belkin),Oscar Gatto (Cannondale), Geraint Thomas (Sky) and Zdenek Stybar (OPQS) joined the move but after the top it was brought back.

 

More bad luck for Devolder

On the descent, disaster struck when Devolder hit a BMC rider who was about to give Van Avermaet a wheel and the Belgian champion and a few Tinkoff-Saxo riders hit the deck hard. The incident split the peloton even more than it already was and from that point Devolder and Van Avermaet were in chase mode.

 

On the Paterberg, Phinney rode away from his companions but the trio got back together over the top of the climb. Trentin set a hard pace in the peloton to make it all explode and after the top only around 25 riders remained.

 

BMC in chase mode

Marcus Burghardt (BMC) made a small attack but OPQS again took control, with Keisse. Behind, BMC were riding hard as they tried to get Van Avermaet back to the front.

 

On the Koppenberg, Impey dropped his companions while Niki Terpstra and Boonen set a hard pace in the peloton. At the top only, only Boonen, Terpstra, Sagan, Vanmarcke, Cacellara, Stybar and Degenkolb but Gallopin, Boasson, Kristoff, Leukemans, Thomas, Vandenbergh, and Devenyns managed to join them.

 

More riders rejoin the front

The group caught all the remnants of the early escape while Nicki Sørensen (Tinkoff-Saxo), Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida), Burghardt, and Sebastian Langeveld (Garmin-Sharp) were some of the riders who rejoined the front. Thomas and Sørensen both made small attacks while behind Cannondale were leading a bigger group that also contained Van Avermaet.

 

They made the junction at the bottom of the Stenbeekdries where a puncture took out Burghardt. Meanwhile Vandenbergh attacked and he was joined by Devenyns and Boasson Hagen to create a dangerous trio.

 

Cancellara shows his cards

At the bottom of the Taaienberg, Van Avermaet, Trentin, Tankink and Sebastien Minard (Ag2r) attacked but Van Avermaet quickly dropped his companions to bridge across to Vandenbergh who had been dropped. Behind, Cancellara made a fierce acceleration to catch everybody but Devenyns and Boasson Hagen.

 

At the top, only Sagan, Boonen, Stybar, Vanmarcke, Leukemans, Minard, Van Avermaet, and Vandenbergh were still there but Degenkolb and Terpstra joined them a little later. With 32km to go, they caught Devenyns and Boasson Hagen to make it a 13-rider front group.

 

The right attack

There was no cohesion in the group and so Devenyns made an unsuccessful attack. Van Avermaet countered the move and was joined by Vandenbergh and the duo started to build up a big gap.

 

Sørensen joined the group of favourites but fell on the pace again on the Hotondberg when Sagan and later Cancellara went hard to control the situation. Devenyns, Degenkolb and Boasson Hagen started to struggle but they all managed to rejoin the group when it got less steep.

 

No control

Vanmarcke attacked and was joined by Degenkolb and Minard but it was quickly closed down. As there was no real chase going on, Terpstra was the next to give it a go with Leukemans and Vanmarcke but they were also brought back.

 

Leukemans was the next to attack and he quickly got a big gap. Minard, Devenyns both tried to follow suit but they were not allowed the same kind of freedom and Boasson Hagen weren't either.

 

A big group gets back

Suddenly, Luca Paolini (Katusha) joined the favourites that were now a minute behind the front duo and this was just a signal of what was to come. Moments later a big group with Cannondale riders Bodnar, Fabio Sabatini and Gatto joined the favourites and Bodnar went straight to the front to work hard.

 

The Pole brought the gap down to less than 50 seconds at the bottom of the Kwaremont where Kristoff hit the front hard. Only Vanmarcke, Cancellara, Sagan, Stybar, Boasson, Terpstra could keep up with him and moments later Cancellara made his expected attack.

 

Cancellara and Vanmarcke surge clear

Cancellara and Vanmarcke took off and easily passed Leukemans. At the top they were 15 seconds behind and they started to work well together while behind Sagan was leading the chase in the 6-rider chase group that consisted of the Slovakian, Stybar, Terpstra, Boasson, Leukemans and Kristoff.

 

Van Avermaet didn't get any help form Vandenbergh and so tried an unsuccessful attack but on the Paterberg he finally got rid of his companion. Surprisingly, Vanmarcke tried to attack Cancellara on the steep slopes and the Swiss had to dig really deep to stay with him.

 

A front quartet is formed

The duo caught Vandenbergh at the top and as he was now only 7 seconds ahead, Van Avermaet decided to wait for this chasers while Thomas, Boonen, Degenkolb and Langeveld had joined the Sagan group.

 

In the front, all were working well together except for Vandenbergh who was just following wheels. Kristoff took off in a lone pursuit while Terpstra and Thomas tried to join him.

 

Kristoff gets close

The Norwegian got close to the leaders before he cracked and fell back to Terpstra who had left Thomas behind. A little further back, Boonen, Leukemans, Langeveld, and Thomas found together but everybody kept losing time to the leaders.

 

With 3.5km to go, the cooperation ended when Vandenbergh launched the first attack. Van Avermaet joined him and Cancellara struggled to close it down. Vanmarcke tried to jump across but it all came together, opening the game of cat and mouse.

 

A game of cat and mouse

Van Avermaet and Cancellara both tried to attack but it all came to a complete standstill. With Kristoff and Terpstra approaching, Cancellara upped the pace as they passed the flamme rouge.

 

Vandenbergh made another attack but Van Avermaet closed it down. The four riders came to a standstill until Cancellara finally launched his sprint less than 200m from the line. From that moment, the outcome was never in doubt as the Swiss easily held off his rivals to take his third Flanders win.