IAM Cycling’s classics leader, Heinrich Haussler, has faced a certain amount of misfortune this season at races such as Het Nieuwsblad, Milan-San Remo and most recently at Friday’s E3-Harelbeke, but Haussler but the 29-year-old IAM Cycling rider tried his luck more than once yesterday in the Gent-Wevelgem, which had 47 km cut from its parcour due to bad weather including snow, freezing temperatures and gale-force winds.

Even if the day’s top honours went to Slovak phenomenon Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Haussler’s 4th place is his best result this season, and a good sign for the coming races which represent the meat of the cobbled classics. It also marks Haussler’s sixth top 10 result since February.

When asked to evaluate his day’s efforts, Heinrich Haussler expressed a certain satisfaction. “I am happy with my result. I really took to the start, in spite of the extreme conditions, to put in the sort of performance of which I know I am capable. I left everything on the road, and committed 100% to the breakaway. At the end, there were members of the break who hadn’t committed so much to its success, and so I didn’t have the sort of reserves I needed to win the sprint for second. But my shape bodes well for the coming classics.”