John Degenkolb had to overcome a heavy crash early in the day before making the final selection at the end of a tough E3 Harelbeke in Belgium, after which he finished out of the top placings but showed he has the legs to challenge over this tough parcours once again.

Degenkolb came down in a large crash early in the day which put several of the race favourites out of contention, but he managed to get back into the bunch and carry on despite pain and bruising to his hip and side. The day’s main breakaway featured six riders that gained a healthy advantage of up to ten minutes but in the final 40km of the race their advantage was all but up as the leaders started to turn up the heat at the front of the race.

Team Giant-Alpecin set out to protect and shelter Degenkolb , and to position him at the front of the peloton for the key climbs, or ‘hellingen’, along the course that included the Patersberg and the Oude-Kwaremont. The plan worked well and once the day’s difficulties were over with Degenkolb still had Zico Waeytens for company in the select front group of around 20 riders.

The winning move had already flown he nest though, with three riders pulling clear on the Kwaremont with around 35km to race. These three established over a 30-second lead that they maintained into the final kilometres before Geraint Thomas (Sky) attacked in the final four kilometres to solo to a strong victory. Degenkolb had to overcome another crash later on before finishing with the chase group that came over the line under a minute later in a sprint for third place with Degenkolb coming home towards the back of the group in 25th preferring to keep his powder dry after a tough day in the saddle and Gent-Wevelgem just two days away.

After warming down, Degenkolb said: “I was doubting a bit in the race after the first crash whether to carry on as I was quite bruised, especially my hip. Luckily it was getting better – the faster it went and the more nervous it was the easier it was to switch off the pain.

“On the Kwaremont though I didn’t really have the legs to follow the best guys. This is really one of the hardest races and it’s like the Tour of Flanders just a bit shorter. You see it with the intensity. I’ll try to recover best now before Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday and we can try again there.”

Waeytens added: “It was pretty good today, and I felt really good. My job was to keep John in front before the Patersberg then normally my job was done but I still felt good and managed to stay in the front after this. I tried to pull in the last part but didn’t have enough left in the legs to do a good job. Hopefully I can go a bit better next time.

“I already felt strong already in Milan-Sanremo and today was another good day. I was happy I could be there for longer to keep supporting John.”

Team Giant-Alpecin coach Aike Visbeek also gave us his thoughts saying: “The first goal of the day was to get John into a good position for the Patersberg; we expected that the Patersberg and Kwaremont would be where the selection was made. And secondly we wanted to have two guys with him as close as possible over the Patersberg.

“Unfortunately John had a crash early in the race and that cost us quite some energy. In the final he was with the best 20 guys; I think we were getting quite close to the three leaders but then when Van Avermaet crashed John came down again and from there we knew we wouldn’t win the race.

“The guys did a good job today. Zico did a super job, working quite early and still working until late on. Koen also was strong doing an important ride up to the Patersberg. The team work was really good today and we can be proud – we did the best we could under the circumstances.”