Niki Terpstra became the first Dutchman to win E3 Harelbeke since Steven de Jongh in 2003, after a dominant performance by the Quick-Step Floors team. Terpstra soloed to the line after initially getting away on the Taaienberg with teammate Yves Lampaert with more than 70 kilometres remaining.
Philippe Gilbert made it a 1-2 for the Quick-Step team, with defending champion Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) rounding out the podium. World champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) had another difficult E3 Harelbeke, crashing in the early stages, getting dropped in the final 40 kilometres and finishing over three minutes down.
Quick-Step took the race by the scruff of the neck with more than half the race still to run after a crash held up a large portion of the peloton, including several of the pre-race favourites. The drive, which was assisted by Lotto Soudal, cut chunks out of the advantage of the day's breakaway. With the remaining leaders within toughing distance, Terpstra and Lampaert attacked on the Taaienberg.
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With Gilbert and Zdenek Stybar to run interference behind, the Quick-Step pairing built an advantage that the chasers struggled to shut down. As the race hit the penultimate helling, the Karnemelkbeekstraat, it looked like it might be about to fall apart for the Belgian team as Lampaert began to struggle. Terpstra seemed unsure of carrying on alone and held back to wait for his ailing teammate as Gilbert attacked behind.
Lampaert got back on, but Gilbert was stuck in no-man's land and eventually sat up and waited. Lampaert's resurgence didn't last long and it was eventually left to Terpstra to try and bring it home for the Belgian outfit. The group behind - with Van Avermaet and two teammates, Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac), Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) and Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) among others – cut the gap to Terpstra to 12 seconds with three kilometres remaining.
However, they ruined any chance of catching the flying Dutchman by playing cat-and-mouse games, appearing to be racing for second place rather than the victory. Their repeated attacks and lulls slowed the chase and allowed Terpstra to build his lead to 19 seconds, even with a slowdown to celebrate his second win of the Classics.
How it unfolded
Quick-Step Floors' to lose
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/e3-harelbeke-2018/results
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