Having already won a stage in last year's Tour of Alberta, Silvan Dillier confirmed his potential for the future when he finished 6th in the Three Days of West-Flanders. On the final day, he proved his fast speed when he sprinted to 4th.
Silvan Dillier placed fourth on Sunday's final stage of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen to wind up sixth overall for the BMC Racing Team.
The BMC Racing Team rode aggressively immediately from the start of the 185.9-kilometer race that finished with three 11-km laps of a circuit in Ichtegem. That approach – helped by strong crosswinds – split the peloton in half and helped Dillier sprint against a reduced field and earn one bonus second in an intermediate sprint.
BMC Racing Team's Martin Kohler was part of a five-man breakaway that set off from the first part of the split-in-half peloton. Their lead peaked at 4:20 after 54 km, dropped to 90 seconds with 83 km to go, but rose to 2:13 less than 10 km later. The five were finally brought back with about 50 km to go.
Inside of 45 km to the finish, 13 riders formed another breakaway. This time, Klaas Lodewyck represented the BMC Racing Team. As the group's lead hovered at a half-minute, two more riders – Jan Barta (Team NetApp - Endura) and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step) – bridged the gap to make it 15 in front.
Van Keirsbulck attacked with five kilometers to go and held off the chasing peloton, which had absorbed Lodewyck and the remaining riders from the breakaway. Stage 1 winner Danilo Napolitano (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) took the field sprint one second later, as Danny van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing) edged out Dillier for the final podium spot.
Prologue winner Gert Joeaar (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) won the race overall, three seconds ahead of Van Keirsbulck. Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr) finished third, five seconds back. Dillier was 13 seconds off the winning time in his best result in a stage race for the BMC Racing Team.
"I missed an important moment when another break went in the first final lap," Dillier said. "But Klaas was attentive and went with them. Behind, Cofidis and Trek Factory Racing were chasing hard and got the group back with 1.5 kilometers to go. I was in quite a good position and went for the sprint. My teammates really helped me to stay in place, even when it was really hectic. I have them to thank for that."
"We had a really good day," sports director Jackson Stewart said. "From the start, we took control of the race. We had a really bad day yesterday, so we wanted to make up for it. All day, we just made really good selections. In the end, we had a bit of bad luck with a flat tire with Dillier and another one late – at three kilometers – with Rick Zabel, who said he was feeling good for the sprint. So that was too bad. All day, all the guys on the team did a really good job."
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