UCI World Champion Peter Sagan timed his sprint to perfection at Gent-Wevelgem to take his third victory in the Belgian classic ahead of Elia Viviani (Quick Step Floors) and Arnaud Démare (Groupama FDJ).

The pace was fast from the drop of the flag which meant a break didn’t go clear until 35 kilometres had been covered, but once the group of six made their move, they really pushed ahead – creating a significant ten-minute gap.

Bora-hansgrohe were amongst the teams to work to reduce the defecit, cutting it in half in less than 60 kilometres. After the second ascent of the Kemmelberg, the race split apart with a strong group including Sagan, Démare, Viviani, Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors), Jasper Stuyven (Trek – Segafredo), Wout Van Aert (Vérandas Willems-Crelan), Sacha Modolo (Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale), Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) and Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) forging ahead and merging with the escapees.

© BORA – hansgrohe / Bettiniphoto

The lead group reduced to twenty-three riders as they raced towards the finish and the race winner would emerge from this group. Inside the final 2 kilometres the attacks came, but Sagan stayed calm. Starting his sprint from a long way out, nobody could touch the UCI World Champion, and once he was out in front, there was no chance of anyone taking his third Gent-Wevelgem win from him.

© BORA – hansgrohe / Bettiniphoto

Peter Sagan – “I’m very happy and I’m glad to win this race again. My team did a great job. In the finale, there were two of us remaining in the front group and I’m really happy with our performance. Sprints are always like a lottery and I was wondering what was going to happen. In the end, I started my sprint early and it worked out – I had the legs to keep going.

“I felt good the second time we climbed the Kemmelberg. It wasn’t too stressful and there wasn’t a lot of wind to make things difficult, which is why we came to the finish in a bigger group. It was a different race today from all of the Gent-Wevelgems I’ve ridden and the lack of stress and the better weather conditions made it easier. It wasn’t anywhere near as crazy as the race has been over the last few years, but it was still really fast.”

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