World champion Peter Sagan claimed his first ‘Monument’ with victory at the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Slovak timed his attack to perfection, breaking away on the final climb of the race just over 13km from the end of the gruelling 255km trek from Bruges to Oudenaarde.
“I feel very good, I’m very happy — it was a super hard race from the start untl the finish, always full gas,” said the winner, who revealed he had some troubles during the race.
“I had a little bit of a problem after 100km, I had to change both wheels because I had a broken wheel.”
Three-time winner Fabian Cancellara had to settle for second in his final season as a cycling professional with home hope Sep Vanmarcke third.
Cancellara missed the move made by Sagan alongside the man he deposed as world champion, Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski, and Vanmarcke around 30km out.
On the Kwaremont climb inside the final 20km Sagan and Vanmarcke broke clear as Cancellara made his move, but 30-seconds behind the leaders.
Sagan then dropped Vanmarcke on the Paterberg climb as Cancellara emerged from the rest as the only serious challenger.
Over the top of the Paterberg, Sagan had an 18-second lead on his two chasers, who could make no inroads on the 13km run-in to the finish.
Had he won, Cancellara would have become the first rider to win the race four times but after six hours and 10 minutes in the saddle, he was 20-seconds short of the record-making win.
“Second is not first and it’s not history. I didn’t win,” he said with a sigh. – Agence France-Presse
