Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the bunch sprint to the line at the Tour of Flanders, but the result for the Norwegian would only be fourth place. Set back by illness, the defending champion has struggled in the past week so took some pride and confidence from it, despite missing out on the podium.
Kristoff had to dig deep to make it into the large chasing group, which was the third one on the road, and it took him several minutes before he was able to say anything at the finish. With his arms on his handlebars and a small can of coca cola clutched in his hand, he caught his breath as a group of Norwegian journalists, and Cyclingnews, stood a respectful distance away until he finally looked up, ready to talk.
“I’m pretty happy, the team worked really well and put me in a good position but in the end, it was the legs,” he said in English, after fielding questions from his native press. “I knew that it would be hard to follow guys like Sagan and Cancellara in the climbs, and I was right. I could not anticipate their moves, and I was a little bit dropped on the Kwaremont. Me and Luke Rowe managed to bridge across on the Paterberg, so I could sprint for a good result, and I took the sprint for fourth place, so I’m pretty satisfied.”
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This time last year, Kristoff was riding a wave of success but the build-up to his title defence has not been that easy. The first signs that there was something wrong was Paris-Nice, but it was highlighted more so when he was dropped at E3 Harelbeke last Friday. Kristoff was then forced to miss Gent-Wevelgem because of illness.
Kristoff had one last chance to close the gap to his rivals by racing at the Three days of De Panne. He took an impressive victory on day one, but he later struggled in the sprints in the subsequent stages and would eventually lose his overall race lead to Lieuwe Westra in the final time trial. There were some signs of improvement in his form, but Kristoff knew that he faced a tough task at Flanders.
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