Arguably the toughest one-day race on the UCI calendar the Tour of Flanders once again came down to the strongest legs at the end of a relentless 264 kilometers.

The winning move came on the Kruisberg climb with still over 25 kilometers to the finish as Nikki Terpstra (Etixx-Quick Step) played his card early - before the usual one-two knockout punch of the iconic Kwaremont-Paterberg hellingen - and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) smartly marked his attack.

The two riders quickly built a lead that wavered, but never toppled, and under the red kite they had enough time in hand to slow down and eye one another in a game of dare to who would make his move first.

Despite Terpstra sitting on the Norwegian’s wheel for the final 2.5-kilometers, Kristoff was too powerful – when he stood on the pedals and began the sprint Terpstra could do no more than a few pedal strokes before he threw in the towel and settled for second.

Seconds later BMC’s Greg van Avermaet outpaced Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) to take the final podium step, while Stijn Devolder arrived with a skeleton group of the hardiest souls, all that was left of almost 200 starters. Devolder sprinted to 13th place.

“I felt very good, and we knew that Kristoff was the big favorite,” Devolder explained shortly after the race ended. “When he attacked on the Kruisberg I could easily follow him, but I wanted to play the game and wait to the other favorites to close the gap, because I also don’t want to go to the finish with Kristoff.

“I was planning to counter after they caught them back, but then we didn’t…towards the finish it was a tactical game, everyone was looking at each other, and jumping and jumping…I jumped my butt off to follow, and at the end I was cramping. You can only be truly happy with the win, but I felt I did a good race, I did the best I could.” 

Similar to one week ago in Gent-Wevelgem Jesse Sergent jumped in the early breakaway, but unlike last week his race was cut short by an unfortunate accident when a neutral support car came a little too close for comfort.

When narrow Belgian roads are crammed with numerous motorbikes, support cars and, of course, the cyclists themselves, inherent dangers like these are at times regrettably part of the game.

“I don’t even really know what happened,” explained Sergent from the hospital, “I was taking a pull and the road curved to the left and a car was coming and the next moment I was on the ground. Straight away I knew that I wasn’t going to be getting back on the bike. I am pretty disappointed.

“Once I got up I realized it was the neutral support car trying to pass on the inside, I am not sure why, but it hit my handlebars and my arm or something and I had no chance to control the bike. It was also on a bit of a downhill section so we were going quite fast.”

The X-rays at the hospital revealed a dislocated fracture of the left collarbone and Jesse Sergent will undergo surgery Monday morning to insert a plate and screws to facilitate the healing.

Despite a day that began well for Trek Factory Racing, where all seemingly was unfolding to the team’s plan, a few mistakes were made later that probably cost the team a better result, explicated director Dirk Demol. He summed up the day:

“It’s clear that without Fabian [Cancellara] it was going to be difficult, but we knew that. Stijn did a great job as expected. Overall we were not bad today, but we made a few mistakes that cost us. Our plan was to have someone in the early breakaway and Jesse was there until he was hit by a car, which was unbelievable.

“Then between kilometers 160 and 220 I had appointed some guys to be looking for groups that may go away, but we were not present – so Stijn was isolated way too early and in the end it was hard for him to do a better place then he made today. I can’t say we were bad, but I was hoping that we would be a bit better.

“As for Jasper [Stuyven] there are no miracles. What happened to him at Strade Bianche - he had undergone surgery twice after his crash - that definitely took away from his best condition.  But anyway, he finished and I still believe that with the team we have here we can do better in Paris-Roubaix.

“Roubaix is more about power, and Flanders is more explosive and this is what we are missing with most of our guys. We have another chance next week and we have to focus on that now.”

Trek Factory Racing’s General Manager Luca Guercilena was on hand to witness one of the biggest events on the team’s calendar, and he heaped praise on Stijn Devolder while reasoning that what happens in a race doesn’t always play out the way you expect or want:

“Obviously we missed something when the first action happened on the Kruisberg, but Stijn was always in the game at the end and we are happy about that. It is a pity that we didn’t get a top 10. We also suffered from the big crash of Jesse because we should have had one man in front, but okay that’s racing.

“Terpstra and Kristoff made the move in the right moment. There were some teams with more than one rider that should have chased faster, but they gave them too much space. This year it was not up to us to control the race, and these other teams had different tactics; that is how it is, we can’t change the race now.”