Yesterday Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung enjoyed its second victory of the day after Gerald Ciolek won the final stage of Three Days of West Flanders.

Earlier, Jay Thomson won the South African National Road Championships. Together with Ciolek’s win, it tops of a highly successful start to the season for Africa’s first Professional Continental team.

Shortly after the stage got underway on Sunday, riders started attacking in order to be represented in the day’s move. Eventually, six riders got away but were never given a lead of more than 3 minutes. Omega Pharma-Quick Step took control of the chase for Mark Cavendish and race leader Kristof Vandewalle. They eventually caught the break with 50 km to go. This forced a number of splits in the group until three riders broke clear and built up a 40 second gap in the closing km but they too were eventually reeled in to ensure a sprint.

“I am very tired now but feel great at the same time,” Ciolek said after the win. “The race started really fast. There wasn’t much wind but it’s a Belgian race so you always have to be awake and stay alert and concentrate. At one point there was a small breakaway close to the finish but the team worked quite well together to bring it back.”

Ciolek also praised the determined efforts by his teammates, “There were narrow roads and it was quite technical towards the finish which suits me perfectly. I had the perfect leadout from Ignatas [Konovalovas] then my last guy was Andreas [Stauff] and he just led me out to 250 m to go and I just had to finish the job. Cycling is amazing. One day you have all the bad luck and then the next day you are on the podium.”

Ciolek was forced to miss Le Samyn earlier in the week after suffering from a cold. A decision was made the day before Three Days of West Flanders for him to start the Belgian race after he had recovered sufficiently. He was frustrated during Saturday’s first road stage after a crash with 3 km to go ended his chance to of contesting the bunch sprint.