Tom Boonen once called Gent-Wevelgem a crap race – well, it was a much less polite four-letter moniker – but this weekend’s offering was anything but with an action-packed 250 kilometres of racing.
It was a brutal race that averaged 46km/h, where Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) played a tactical blinder and had the legs to take victory in the sprint finish. Kristoff’s win spelt the end, or at least a brief hiatus, to Deceuninck-QuickStep’s domination of the one-day spring races. The Belgian team has been seemingly unbeatable at the start of this season, but they failed to even make the top 10 on this occasion.
A week before the Tour of Flanders, the race also saw impressive showings from Trek-Segafredo and Jumbo-Visma. These were just a few of the stories that came out of Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem.
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All-out action, Jumbo-Visma and Trek-Segafredo take the fight to Deceuninck-QuickStep
The post-race media scrums at one-day races had become almost formulaic in nature. More often than not, a Deceuninck-QuickStep rider would be ushered to the podium, mobbed by his teammates as he went, while directors from rival teams would wearily drag themselves from their cars. Another tiring day, another finish line that would ultimately lead to defeat. One almost felt sorry for these middle-aged men as they cleared the glove compartments of empty sweet wrappers, dusted off baguette crumbs, and searched for excuses. In almost every case the question would be asked: 'So how do you beat QuickStep?" And every time the answer would be the same: "Don't wait. Go early."
On Sunday we finally saw what happens when such a plan is put in place. For the first time this spring, Belgian's premiere team were on the back foot due to a 20-man break that contained blocks from Trek-Segafredo, Bora-Hansgrohe, Jumbo-Visma and a number of notable pre-race favourites.
The conditions certainly played a significant factor and while Deceuninck-QuickStep can look back on a day in which they made few mistakes, they certainly had the wrong rider in the break. Tim Declercq is no pushover, but he can neither climb like Zdenek Stybar nor sprint like Philippe Gilbert. So, while his presence in the attack meant that QuickStep had no onus to chase during the initial hours, they most certainly needed to hit the front once their breakaway rider was dropped on the Kemmelberg.
Trek-Segafredo's performance mattered more than their result
Valgren struggles to hit his mark at Dimension Data
Jumbo-Visma's youth
Alexander Kristoff's class
Weight matters
Naesen’s growing reputation
Van der Poel’s debut
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/8-conclusions-from-gent-wevelgem
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