The 104th edition of the Scheldeprijs lived up to its reputation of being a sprinter’s world championships race. A redesigned finale and smaller peloton attracted most of the top sprinters, including André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) who stayed away for several years.
Greipel is working his way back to top form after sustaining a rib injury in February. Race organizers offered him a massive bottle of Kwaremont beer at the start podium in Antwerp on Wednesday morning to thank him for showing up. He thanked them with a third place behind four-time winner Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data).
A third place usually doesn’t please the German powerhouse but on Wednesday he seemed rather content. Partly due to his rib injury but also because the sprint was contested in the rain.
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“It’s not my weather: the rain and the cold. I always have problems in these conditions,” Greipel said. “I can be happy now with the third place. I know I can sprint better than I did today but ‘today is today’ and the best rider won, today. If I could turn it back I could not have done it any better. I had a good position. Unfortunately I didn’t have the legs. I’m looking forward to contest in more sprints now.”
The 33-year-old crashed hard during the fourth stage of the Volta ao Algarve on February 21. Greipel fractured a rib on his left side and had to skip his participation in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. He restarted competition in Paris-Nice on March 6 with a third place behind Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) in fourth stage finish town Romans-sur-Isère as a sign of increasing form. He didn’t finish a tough edition of Gent-Wevelgem and quietly completed the Three days of De Panne-Koksijde, not able to get a top-10 result in the bunch sprint on the second day.
At the Tour of Flanders, Greipel seemed reborn, featuring in a breakaway move that put his teammates in a comfortable position. He finished 28th in Oudenaarde last Sunday.
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