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“Cancellara, Sagan and Boonen are in a league of their own, but I am not beaten before the race starts. If you look at 2011, when Nick Nuyens won the Tour of Flanders and Johan Vansummeren triumphed in Roubaix, you see that these thin...

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JURGEN ROELANDTS

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21.12.2013 @ 14:37 Posted by Emil Axelgaard

This year Jurgen Roelandts got closer than ever before to winning the Tour of Flanders when he finished 3rd behind Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan. He knows that the odds are against him but his life-long dream remains to win his big home race.

 

Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan may have taken most of the headlines at this year's Tour of Flanders when the duo were involved in a fierce battle royale, with Cancellara ultimately dropping Sagan on the Paterberg to take his second win in the race. However, a local rider was about to surprise the two major stars and was rewarded for his brave effort with a spot on the final podium.

 

While most riders chose to wait for the decisive accelerations from Cancellara and Sagan, Jurgen Roelandts refused to just for 3rd place. The Belgian tried to anticipate the major favourites and when the duo escaped from their main rivals during the final passage of the Oude Kwaremont, they bridged across to the Lotto Belisol captain who was leading the race on his own.

 

Roelandts was unable to keep up with the two stars on the Paterberg but combined forces with Sagan in an attempt to reel in Cancellara during the flat run-in to the finish in Oudenaarde. They failed in their quest and despite being a solid sprinter, Roelandts was easily beaten by Sagan in the sprint for 2nd.

 

However, the result was a breakthrough for Roelandts who has long been regarded as a future star in the cobbled classics. And having once been close to the win in the biggest race on Flemish soil, there is no doubt which race he would love to conquer.

 

“I used to train a lot near Meerbeke, on the old course,” he told Cyclingnews at the Lotto-Belisol team launch in Gent. “It remains my life-long dream to win it one day.

 

“Cancellara, Sagan and Boonen are in a league of their own, but I am not beaten before the race starts. If you look at 2011, when Nick Nuyens won the Tour of Flanders and Johan Vansummeren triumphed in Roubaix, you see that these things are also possible. And if I arrive at the finish with Sagan and Cancellara, I can beat them in a direct sprint.”

 

In 2014 the course will be changed, with the final circuit being skipped. The previous route was criticized for its many long, flat straights in the finale which forced riders to wait until the final passages of the Kwaremont and the Paterberg.

 

Most of those sections have now been removed and the feared Koppenberg features only 44km from the finish. The Kwaremont-Paterberg duo will still be the final two climbs of the race and will prove decisive in the final outcome of the race.

 

In 2013, Roelandts was mostly on his own in the cobbled classics but in 2014 he can expect to see more from his teammates. Tony Gallopin has been signed as a co-leader while Jens Debusschere is emerging as a future contender for the Flemish races.

 

“The new course of the Tour of Flanders will mean that teams don’t wait that long anymore, I hope," he said. "With strong riders like Gallopin, Jens Debusschere and [Andre] Greipel I can win this race. Yes, if Cancellara finishes one and a half minutes ahead of me, no it’s not possible. But if I look back to the victories of Nick Nuyens and Johan Vansummeren in 2011. There is always that possibility in a race.”

 

While Roelandts gets his own chance in the cobbled classics, he is a crucial part of Greipel's sprint train where he is the final rider to deliver Greipel and lead-out man Greg Henderson. He will start his season in that role at the Tour Down Under and the Tours of Qatar and Oman before getting into classics mode at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

 

After the classics, he will again be a part of Greipel's train where he will play a crucial role in the German's attempt to add another Tour de France win to his ever-growing palmares.

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