Peter Sagan takes his first win of the season at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

UCI World Champion Peter Sagan took both his first win of the season and his first in a BORA-hansgrohe jersey today when he was first across the line at the end of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

The win will make up for any disappointment for the Slovakian when he was beaten into second place yesterday at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad by Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing).

With a reputation as a sprinters’ classic, you’d be forgiven for imagining a flat parcours awaited riders on the 200.7km route, but eleven difficult climbs awaited riders – most of them coming in the latter half of the race.

The first hour and a half of the day was punctuated with several false starts as while breaks attempted to go up the road, the pace in the peloton was simply too fast.

After a number of escape attempts, nine riders eventually got clear. The break of Sjoerd van Ginneken (Roompot), David Boucher (Pauwels sauzen – Vastgoedservice), Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Maxime Farazijn (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise). Guillaume Boivin (Israel Cycling Academy), Alex Kirsch (WB Veranclassic Aqua Protect), and Sander Cordeel (Vérandas Willems-Crelan) gained a lead of nearly six minutes after 100 kilometres.

With 80 kilometres remaining, the pace went up in the peloton which split on the Oude Kwaremont. A strong group forged clear which included the likes of Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe), Zdenek Stybar (Quick Step Floors), Greg van Avermaet and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo).

The chasers decreased the lead of the front group, but the peloton were still in contention. The break were caught with 32 kilometres remaining.

Stuyven then surged clear and was joined by Sagan, Matteo Trentin (Quick Step Floors), and then Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) and Luke Rowe (Team Sky) as they pushed their lead over the chasers to 20″ and the peloton to over a minute.

The leading five worked well together, and at the finish, Sagan was easily able to beat his breakaway companions taking his first victory of the season, the 90th of his career, and BORA – hansgrohe’s first ever win as a UCI WorldTeam.

Speaking from the finish line, Sagan was pleased with both his performance and his team, who supported him in the earlier climbs. “Today I felt good, thanks to the team because they did good work on the Kwaremont. The whole team was pulling for me. I wondered if the group would make the catch and we’d have a normal bunch sprint, but after they started attacking on the first lap, after that I was in the front in the breakaway and was really glad the guys in the front were working well. In the end we came to the finish just five guys and it was good – I’m happy for this victory, both for me and the team.”

While other riders in the break appeared startled by the appearance of the chasing group at the finish, Sagan kept his cool and stayed in control in the sprint. “It was a little bit of a slow sprint today. Trentin attacked early and then I came to get him, then we slowed again at 500m to go and it was a slow sprint. I thought if I started from 250m I could have a good attack from the start.”