Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) secured the first Monument of his career with an unstoppable performance in the 100th edition of the Tour of Flanders. The World Champion attacked several times and shed his final companion, Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo), on the Paterberg before soloing to the finish.
Riding in his final Ronde van Vlaanderen, Fabian Cancellara (Trek Segafredo) stormed up the Oude Kwaremont to break clear from the main chase group but, after linking up with Vanmarcke on the Paterberg, he was unable to claw Sagan back on the run-in to Oudenaarde.
The Slovak carried a 15-second lead over the final climb and, arms tucked neatly over his bars, extended that gap in the closing stages as he time trialled his way to the line, whereupon he pulled a trademark wheelie. Cancellara sat up, saluted the Flanders crowd and drank in the atmosphere one final time as he came home for second, with Vanmarcke, who had been visibly weaker in the chase, happy to let him do so rather than contest the sprint.
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Last year’s winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), who rode an inoffensive race, won a small sprint for fourth in a group that included Luke Rowe (Team Sky) and the Etixx-QuickStep duo of Zdenek Stybar and Niki Terpstra.
“I feel very good, I’m very happy. It was a super hard race from start to finish – always full gas,” said Sagan. “It's very hard to work with other guys because no one wants to work with me... so it's better to drop everyone.
“We have to think about the two guys who died last week,” he added, referring to the deaths of fellow riders Antoine Demoitié and Daan Myngheer, who were both remembered earlier in the day. “It’s very sad. I want to dedicate this to them. Also to [teammate] Maciej Bodnar, who crashed in training. He was very unlucky and I want to wish him a good recovery.”
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