Yves Lampaert victorious in Dwars door Vlaanderen after last kilometre move
Mar 29 2018 02:45 am CET
Quick-Step Floors jersey ©Sigfrid Eggers
Yves Lampaert has won Dwars door Vlaanderen. The rider of Quick-Step accelerated from the escape group with 800 meters to go and crossed the finish line on his own.
The 180.5-kilometre race was cold and rainy as predicted, which made it even more difficult for any unexpected moves to succeed. The peloton remained together until around 80 kilometres to go, despite the efforts of some riders to get away.
As the climbs and cobbles passed, the pack broke into pieces and riders like Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin), Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors) and Alejandro Valverde tried to get away but were eventually caught back by the group.
With around 30 kilometres to go, 2018 Strade Bianche winner Tiesj Benoot managed to escape during the ascent of the Knoteberg and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) followed. Some kilometres later they were caught and right away a new group of 13 was formed that included names like Yves Lampaert, Valverde, Van Avermaet and Benoot.
At 17 kilometres from the end, five riders of that group attacked and created a gap of almost a minute with the chasers. Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data), Mike Teunissen (Sunweb), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Lampaert faced the two last climbs of the day while a group led by Van Avermaet and Benoot tried to catch them.
The five riders arrived together to the last kilometre and while they kept an eye on each other to launch the last sprint, Lampaert decided to make a strong move that the others were unable to follow. The Belgian crossed the finish line on his own, with Teunissen and Vanmarcke taking second and third.
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