It almost turned out as planned for Tinkoff-Saxo at the Flemish classic E3 Harelbeke. All eyes were on the defending champ Peter Sagan, who indeed made his mark on the race by forming a strong breakaway with the later winner Geraint Thomas and Zdenek Stybar. However, a depleted Peter Sagan had to throw in the towel with just 3.5km to go, while Matti Breschel went on to secure a result for Tinkoff-Saxo by finishing 6th in the sprint behind.
 
Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan, Zdenek Stybar (Etixx) and Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) made their mark on E3 Harelbeke, as the trio upped the pace on Oude Kwaremont to form the decisive break with still 37km of racing left to the finish line in Harelbeke. After having put the hammer down in the breakway keeping the chasers at bay, Sagan eventually sat back depleted of power for the final battle.
 
“It's no secret how I felt in the last kilometers, I think you could see it on television as well. I felt good until Oude Kwaremont but that was still far from the finish. As I said before, that's racing. Sometimes you perform well sometimes you don’t. However, I'm not worried about Sunday's race in Gent-Wevelgem. I feel well because I did a good job on Oude Kwaremont and then in the breakaway and we have another two weeks of racing ahead. I feel confident that Sunday will be better”, comments Peter Sagan, who crossed the finish line as 30th after having been caught by the chasing group.

Running 218km on cobbles and steep hills in the Belgian region of Flanders, E3 Harelbeke made for a tough race. Tinkoff-Saxo, with the defending champion on the team, rode at the front of the field in an effort to protect the team leader from the various crashes that took out several favorites along the parcours, including three-time winner Fabian Cancellara. Tinkoff-Saxo’s sports director Lars Michaelsen commented that he was satisfied with the team’s work, despite losing out on the win.
 
“I think that Tinkoff-Saxo showed a very strong performance today in E3. We came with ambitions here and, unfortunately, we didn't come out of the race the way we wanted. Peter Sagan was there to put his mark on the finale but at the end he ran out of energy. However, the squad executed the strategy to perfection. When we decided to take control, the guys were fighting together and everybody was contributing to their part of the work”, says Lars Michaelsen and adds:
 
“It wasn't what we came here for but at least we showed a very good performance the whole day and I'm sure all our fans can acknowledge this. I feel sorry for Peter because he wanted this so bad and I'm sure he's disappointed. We now look forward to the upcoming Classics and the positive lesson we can draw today is that the team worked perfectly”.

The former Classics specialist turned DS goes on to explain the race progress from the moment the race hit the decisive cobblestone section of Oude Kwaremont.
 
“As the deciding break took off on Oude Kwaremont we saw Geraint Thomas attacking hard and Stybar chasing him down and after a while Peter managed to bridge across, showing great strength. That was promising for the finale. The leading trio quickly got 15 seconds, then increased it to 40 seconds and behind them Katusha and BMC were chasing hard but they were insisting in the front. Peter ran out of energy when Thomas attacked with around 4km to go. A group of 30 riders were sprinting for third place, where Matti Breschel managed to take 6th”, finishes Lars Michaelsen.
 
Tinkoff-Saxo’s Classics squad is already in action again Sunday, as the riders take on Gent-Wevelgem.