Local boy Yves Lampaert capitalised on some top tactical work by Quick-Step Floors to take a solo victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Philippe Gilbert made it a double day of glory for the Belgian team, sprinting to second place from the three-man chasing group. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) rounded off the podium, beating Luke Durbridge (Orica-Scott) into third place.
"For me it’s a dream that came true. It’s not that far from my home and I did a lot of recons to do this race," Lampaert said. "To win, for me it’s a fantastic gift that I can give to the team and thanks to everybody."
Quick-Step had two cards to play in the finale and found themselves with a royal flush when it came down to the crunch. Lampaert laid the heavy groundwork on the final climbs before an attack from Gilbert on the Paterberg forced the race-winning split. Lampaert was one of the only riders who had the legs to follow Gilbert, along with Lutsenko and Durbridge.
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The quartet worked well together, pulling out a gap of over a minute, which was helped by a lack of co-operation behind. Even with 10 kilometres remaining, it became clear that the winner of the race would come from the four out front. They worked well together until Gilbert finally broke ranks on the final stretch of cobbles.
No sooner was Gilbert brought back than Lampaert made his own move. Lampaert, who missed most of the Classics last season after injuring his Achilles when his girlfriend accidentally ran into him with a shopping trolley, had to fight hard to build the gap but he knew the roads and eventually won by 37 seconds over his teammate.
"For me it's a dream that came true. It's not that far from my home and I did a lot of recons to do this race. To win, for me it's a fantastic gift that I can give to the team and thanks to everybody," Lampaert said after his win.
How it happened
— sporza (@sporza) March 22, 2017
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