Van Avermaet shows how to swap placings and beat Sagan with perfect finishing surge
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) proved that you don’t always need to be a good sprinter to win big races with his victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.
The Belgian had clearly studied the new finish used for this year’s race, which had changed due to the fun fair occupying Ghent’s Sint-Pietersplein square. He had seen how the curves in the road and the rising gradient would turn the sprint into a drag race and realised that it would be difficult for anyone, including Peter Sagan, to have the speed to get past him if he jumped first, took the best line and used his power to drive all the way to the finish. It was a perfect lesson in how to beat a sprinter. It left Sagan looking for excuses and gave Van Avermaet a huge boost for the rest of the spring.
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The first race of the Belgian season is always an aperitif to the April Classics but showed that Van Avermaet is on form and on track for further success in a few weeks’ time.
He said he was happy to swap his many placings in the Tour of Qatar and the Tour of Oman for victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. No doubt come April, he will be happy to swap his win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for victory at the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix. (SF)
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