Danny van Poppel once again stomped his sprinting authority on the Three Days of West Flanders taking the stage win on the final day after winning the first stage – his first ever professional win – one year ago. Finishing second was Kris Boeckmans (Lotto Soudal) and Michael Van Staeyen (Cofidis) rounded out the top three.

“I am very happy!” exclaimed an elated Danny van Poppel. “Last year I won the first stage, and now this year I win the second. In the beginning [of the race] I did not feel so good. It was a very hard race! In the end I felt better, but then there was a crash on the cobblestones and I was caught behind that and I could not follow when the break went.”

A large 24-man breakaway almost threw a wrench into the plan after 17 riders separated and joined the original 7-man escape group. It was a long, furious chase that threatened to play out in carbon copy to yesterday, but with Etixx-Quick Step defending a yellow jersey, and Katusha and Bora-Argon18 missing the boat, more teams were invested in bringing the escapees back to the fold.

With less than six kilometers to go the catch was finally made, and the 50-strong peloton headed toward a mass sprint.

“It was not easy to bring the break back, and on the local laps we could see [the breakway] the whole time and I said to some of the guys to wait, and not work too much, and just let Stijn [Devolder] pull,” Danny van Poppel continued. “On the last lap the GC teams helped and we got them back. On the finale the guys did a great lead out, especially Boy [van Poppel] at the very end. This is a dream for two brothers!  I am very happy!

"This is the first victory of the season. It's good to have opened my account now. I am very grateful to my brother Boy for the work and also to the rest of the team. All day, they did a big job with the Katusha and Wanty teams.In the last kilometers, I was very well protected in the wheel of my teammates. I was wary of Kris Boeckmans but I managed to beat him on the line. My next goal is the Nokere Koerse where I also aim for the win."
 

Boy van Poppel, the elder of the two siblings, always plays an important role in leading out his younger brother. Today he was the last wheel in a textbook lead out by the team, an ending, he explained, that was almost thwarted for the second straight day:

“On the long cobblestone section at around 126kms there was a crash and only Jesse [Sergent] was up there. It was in the gutter after this and Jesse was gapped and then we had a bit of a worrisome situation when a large group got away and we had missed it. On the local laps it was very narrow and we tried to close it – it was always 20-30 seconds and we could see them riding all the time, but it was so hard to close it.

“With 5k to go we caught them and then we were really motivated to win the stage. I saw that Gianni Meersman was doing a lot of work for the yellow jersey so I was confident and motivated that we could win.

“At 1K to go we told Stijn [Devolder] to go full gas, and Jesse was in front of me. Then with less than 200m to go Danny came flying by me. It was a perfect lead out.”

Today’s win was not a surprise to director Dirk Demol who saw a strong Danny van Poppel win the sprint from the peloton yesterday after just missing the opportunity to sprint for victory by four seconds. What was more difficult was to control a race for a sprint ending with only six riders, but today a strong Stijn Devolder did the work of ten and easily made up for the lack of a full squad.

“You could see this win was coming," smiled Demol. "Today was a perfect lead out with Boy, Fabio  [Silvestre] – everyone was riding really well today. Stijn was amazing strong today in the chase. I was also pushing them that our condition is good – just look at the prologue, it never lies - and we can afford to take the race in hand more today. The boys said that Fumy [Beppu] did a great job in the chase, too; it was a very hard chase. Then in the finale the rest were there for an incredible lead out.”

Jesse Sergent successfully held his third place in the overall, adding another podium to cap off a successful day for the team. Yves Lampaert (Etixx-Quick Step) defended the yellow leader's jersey, winning the three-day event by eight seconds over prologue winner Anton Vorobyev (Katusha).