After near-misses in Milan-Sanremo and E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, Peter Sagan (Cannondale) can finally tick off the classics box on his palmares. After joining an escape group with around 50 km to go, he soloed away from his fellow escapees inside the final 3 km to win a cold and windy Gent-Wevelgem.

Peter Sagan declared prior to the season that his first major objective would be to get his first classics win in either Milan-Sanremo, Gent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders or the Amstel Gold Race. After missing his first opportunity in Italy last weekend, he succeeded in his second attempt in today's Gent-Wevelgem.

Knowing that it would be difficult to beat the likes of Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Andre Greipel in a sprint, he decided to go on the attack to get rid of his faster competitors. He managed to join a 10-man group which caught up with an earlier 3-man escape to create a strong 13-man group.

He was joined by teammate Maciej Bodnar, Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Borut Bozic and Assan Bazayev (Astana), Bernhard Eisel (Sky),  Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil), Jens Debusschere (Lotto), Heinrich Haussler (IAM), Andrey Amador (Movistar), Mathieu Ladagnous (FDJ) and Yaroslav Popovych (Radioshack). Bazayev was dropped the second time up the Kemmelberg and Debusschere punctured out of the group, but the remaining 11 riders soldiered on towards the line.

Behind, a much reduced peloton tried to organize a chase effort after the passage of the last climb. With Greipel and Cavendish both present, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Lotto-Belisol did the bulk of the work, but they failed to gain much inroads into the advantage.

As Bodnar had dropped off after doing an impressive work for his Slovakian captain, the attacks in the front group started. Sensing that the collaboration was destroyed by the constant accelerations, Sagan chose to go on his own instead of waiting for the sprint. He countered an attack by Vandenbergh inside the final 3 kilometers and showed that he was far stronger than his competitors by soling away in impressive fashion.

With plenty of time to celebrate his first classics victory, he made another of those victory salutes that are his trademark. Showing his incredible technical abilities, he passed the finish line on his rear wheel while behind his former escapees fought it out for the win. An attack by Amador was caught just before the line, and instead Bozic beat Van Avermaet to take his second runner-up position this week after his similar performance in Wednesday's Dwars door Vlaanderen.

Moments later, Greipel beat Arnaud Demare (FDJ) in the peloton's sprint to take a disappointing 11th place.

More to come

Result

1 Peter Sagan - Cannondale Pro Cycling 4:29:10

2 Borut Bozic - Astana Pro Team

3 Greg Van Avermaet - BMC Racing Team

4 Heinrich Haussler - IAM
5 Juan Flecha - Vacansoleil-DCM
6 Matthieu Ladagnous - FDJ
7 Bernhard Eisel - Sky
8 Stijn Vandenbergh - Omega Pharma-QuickStep
9 Yaroslav Popovych - Radioshack-Leopard
10 Andrei Amador - Movistar