Luka Mezgec (Giant-Shimano) continued his march towards the top end of the sprinting hierarchy when he won today's one-day race Handzame Classic in the expected sprint finish. After a very fast and aggressive race on a windy day in Belgium, the Slovenian held off an in-form Theo Bos (Belkin) and Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen) to take his first win of the season.

Last year in his first professional season, Luka Mezgec proved that he has the potential to become a very great sprinter. In the Giro d'Italia he posted several top 5 finishes and he went on to take several top placings until the win finally arrived.

When he crossed the line for the first time, it even happened in a race at the highest level as he won the final stage of the Tour of Beijing. After a slow start to his 2014 season, he has finally started to back up his strong 2013 showings and today he took his first win of the season when he won the Handzame Classic.

The Belgian race typically ends in a bunch sprint but a lot of wind made it a hard and very fast affair. With most teams lining up their sprinters, however, the sprint finish was unavoidable and it all came down to a battle between some of the fastest riders in the world.

In the finale most eyes were on the in-form Theo Bos (Belkin) who was expected to continue the excellent form he had shown in the recent Tour de Langkawi but today the Dutchman had to admit defeat. In the bunch sprint, he was beaten into second by Mezgec while Edward Theuns was a surprise presence on the lower step of the podium.

The win for Mezgec comes at a pleasant time after he had been slowed down by illness earlier in the year. Things now suggest that he is back to his best and he has proved that Giant-Shimano have more cards to play in the sprint finishes than just Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb.

The Belgian season continues on Wednesday when it is time for the first of the cobbled classics. The Dwars door Vlaanderen opens the holy period of Belgian cycling that continues with the E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgen, Three Days of De Panne, Tour of Flanders, and Scheldeprijs over the next few weeks.

A semi-classic

The fourth edition of the Handzame Classic took place on a mostly flat 198.3km course from Bredene to Handzame. From the start, the riders headed to the coast before going into the hilly zone near the French-Belgian border which is known from Gent-Wevelgem. Having passed the Vidaineberg, Baneberg, Monteberg, and Ruitenberg, the riders would head to Handzame where they would cross the finish line after 147km of racing. The race ended with three laps of a flat 17km circuit around the city.

The race took off under beautiful sunny but very windy conditions and it was a general prediction that the wind would play a big role. This turned out to be correct as the race started off with a fierce pace due to the very nervous peloton.

A first break

Early in the race, six riders managed to get a gap of 30 seconds but when they were brought back, Scott Thwaites (Team NetApp Endura), Wout Franssen (AnPost Chainreaction), Jarno Gmelich Meijling (Metec-TKH Continental), Pit Schlechter (Leopard Development Team), and Oliver Naesen (Cibel) took off. The quintet managed to gain an advantage of a handful of seconds but the pace was too fast to stay away.

After 17km of racing, things were back together and the fast pace made it almost impossible to get clear. At the 44km mark however, Tim Declercq (TopSport Vlaanderen), Sander Cordeel (Vastgoedservice), Kevin Claeys (Anpost - Chain Reaction) and Oscar Riesebeek (Metec) opened up a 33-second gap and it seemed that the day's break had been established.

The crosswind splits the peloton

However, the peloton now hit a crosswind sections which broke it to pieces. Suddenly, the bunch was divided into four groups, with the second being 19 seconds, the third 36 seconds, and the fourth 50 seconds behind the first one. The four escapees were quickly brought back as the 60-rider front group tried to maintain their advantage.

The second and third group merged while Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Belisol) was unfortunate to puncture out of the lead group. The gap between the first two groups reached 37 seconds but a hard chase meant that all groups came back together by the time they reached the hilly zone with 110km to go.

BMC try to split things

BMC set a hard tempo up the slopes to tire out the sprinters and this opened up several gaps in the peloton. Jack Bobridge (Belkin) took off on his own but as the first group tried to keep their rivals at bay, he was quickly swallowed up.

A crash brought down Jan Barta (Team Netapp), Sjoerd Van Ginneken (Metec), Robin Stenuit (Wallonie-Bruxelles) which caused the peloton to split into three groups. Last year's winner Kenny Dehaes (Lotto Belisol) found himself in the third group that was 36 seconds behind the first one with 75km to go.

The groups come back together

The pace was very fast, causing Dennis Vanendert (Lotto Belisol) and Julien Stassen (Wallonie) to fall off the pace but with 70km still to go, the two first groups came back together. Rob Ruijgh (Vastgoestservice) launched an immediate attack but he was quickly reeled in.

Instead, Tim Declercq (TopSport Vlaanderen) , Alphonse Vermote Vastgoestservice) and Dennis Coenen (Leopard Development Team ) took off and that trio was allowed to go clear as the peloton was now on the final circuit where the wind played less of a role. Dehaes rejoined the main group and so it was his Lotto Beliol who started to chase when the gap had reached 1.10 shortly after the first passage of the finish line.

The sprint teams start to chase

Lotto were joined by Belkin and Giant-Shimano and those three teams combined forces to gradually bring down the gap. For a long time they kept it at 40-50 seconds but after the first lap it was only 35 seconds.

At the end of the second lap, the gap was still 28 seconds but now Lotto Belisol upped the pace. The Belgian team rode hard and brought back the escapees with 10km to go.

BMC hit the front

Omega Pharma-Quick Step took control for their sprinter Andrew Fenn but inside the final 5km, it was BMC on the front, trying to set up Klaas Lodewyck or Rick Zabel for the sprint. With 2km to go, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) tried to deny the sprinters but he was quickly reeled in by the peloton.

Instead, it all came down to the expected bunch sprint and here Mezgec proved that he is not too far behind the best sprinters in the world when he held off Bos in the final dash to the line.