Every advantage has its disadvantage. Fittingly for the day that was in it, the late Johan Cruyff’s oft-cited aphorism neatly encapsulated Peter Sagan’s predicament in the closing kilometres of E3 Harelbeke.
The world champion found himself with his predecessor Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) for company at the head of the race on the run-in to Harelbeke, with a dwindling advantage over elite group that included Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) and Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep).
The quicker of the leading pair by reputation, Sagan was the natural favourite in the event of a two-up sprint with Kwiatkowski, but that status also brought with it the weighty responsibility of working on the front to ensure that they stayed clear of their pursuers.
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After forging clear on the penultimate climb of the Karnemelkbeekstraat with 30 kilometres remaining, Sagan and Kwiatkowski established a maximum lead of 37 seconds, but that figure began to tumble as the parcours snaked through suburban housing estates on the fringe of Harelbeke in the last three kilometres.
“I was with Michal on the front. In the last two kilometres on the radio I heard ‘you have to pull, you have to pull’ because they were coming from the back,” Sagan said.
Sagan duly led into the long finishing straight, with its imperceptible rise, and – not for the first time this season – he was caught completely flatfooted when Kwiatkowski opened his sprint from distance, some 300 metres from the line. The Slovak climbed out of the saddle to give chase, but his pedal strokes were leaden, his effort forlorn. He soon sat down again, a beaten man, and rolled across the line in second place, four seconds down on Kwiatkowski.
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