Niki Terpstra won Dwars door Vlaanderen Wednesday in Waregem, Belgium. Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) attacked over the Paterberg with 30 kilometers to go to take victory in the 201km cobbles opener.
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) finished second and Borut Bozic (Astana) was third.
A series of reshuffles saw two groups escape with roughly 50km to go, but Lotto-Belisol was not represented in the resulting move, and worked hard to bring the leaders back. The gap at the bottom of 380-meter, 13.7-percent Paterberg was less than 10 seconds.
The race came back together on the cobbled climb under pressure from multiple attacks out of the bunch and one man emerged at the head of the race: Terpstra. He held a dozen seconds after the climb and was fully committed, but the peloton was organized tightly behind.
Trek Factory Racing led the chase, but when the gap went above 30 seconds, Orica send a man to the front to share the load.
Stijn Devolder (Trek) set out in pursuit with 19km to go, and was soon joined by three other riders. Nicki Sørensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) were there, and Terpstra’s teammate Gert Steegmans was along for a free ride.
With 8km to go, the foursome was 18 seconds behind Terpstra. Former Ronde van Vlaanderen winner Nick Nuyens (Garmin-Sharp) attacked from the peloton, but Omega Pharma’s Tom Boonen marked him, and the duo quickly gave up.
The chase group was finished with 3km to go, but Terpstra pushed on alone, crossing the line with arms raised as the peloton turned onto the finish straight.
Farrar took the field sprint, pumping his right fist after crossing the line.
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