Jurgen Roelandts finished off the work in a well-planned Lotto-Belisol tactics in today's Ronde van Vlaanderen. His final third place was the result of a strong collective effort to anticipate the attacks from Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan.

Knowing that it would be difficult to follow the expected accelerations from pre-race favourites Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan on the final passages of the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg climbs, Jurgen Roelandts and his Lotto-Belisol team came up with a plan to make it over those difficulties ahead of his most dangerous rivals. By sending a number of teammates up the road, he hoped to have the needed assistance to keep his competitors at bay long enough to play a crucial role in the finale.

Tosh Van Der Sande first showed the team's intentions by joining the day's early move, and he was later joined by Andre Greipel and Marcel Sieberg. All three spent plenty of time ahead of the peloton and fought valiantly to be able to assist their captain when he came from behind.

Unfortunately, the teammates were all caught when Jurgen Roelandts launched his planned attack between the last two passages of the Kwaremont and Paterberg climbs. Nonetheless, the tactics had a successful outcome as Roelandts managed to keep the peloton at bay when he crested the top of the day's final climb and by joining forces with Sagan on the final run-in, he took a 3rd place in one of the monuments of cycling.

The Belgian was happy to see his tactics pay off.

 “Beforehand I had said that I wanted to take off before the final passage on the Oude Kwaremont," he explained. "I had the legs today and decided to go for it. When only three riders joined me I first thought that weren’t many, because it was the right moment for riders from the second line to jump away. But it turned out well for me."

"It definitely was a fantastic moment when I was riding solo on the final climb of the Oude Kwaremont. When I looked behind and saw two riders approaching, I didn’t have to think long to know who that could be. I kept on believing in it, but I had already done quite an effort, but they had done that as well. It was impressive to see Fabian take off on the Paterberg. I saw that Sagan couldn’t follow him and on the top he wasn’t that far in front of me. After the Paterberg I joined Sagan and decided to give everything to be on the podium.”

With his podium place, Roelandts managed to satisfy the Flemish public who had been massively disappointed by the abandonment of home hero Tom Boonen. He will now try to repeat today's result when he leads his team in next Sunday's Paris-Roubaix.