Stannard repeats at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, van der Breggen takes women’s title

Brit Ian Stannard (Sky) wouldn’t be bullied by superior Etixx-QuickStep numbers in Saturday’s decisive move of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad to to win his second consecutive Omloop in Flanders. In the women’s race, Anna van der Breggen triumphed in her first contest since a horrible wreck in the team time trial of the world championships last September.

Van der Breggen (The Netherlands/Rabobank-Liv) beat compatriot Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) in a sprint after a long breakaway. Boels-Dolmans owned three of the top four spots. Karol-Ann Canuel (Velocio-SRAM) was the top Canadian at 31st and Joëlle Numainville placed 53rd.

In the men’s race an eight-man breakaway soon became a seven-man escape that stayed ahead of a Sky-led peloton often with Bradley Wiggins at its sharp end. Tom Boonen (Belgium/Etixx-QuickStep) started the winnowing process on the Taaienberg climb with 59-km to go. There were two fugitives left out front by the Wolvenberg ascent, where Luke Rowe (Great Britain/Sky) joined the duo. But the trio was brought back with 45-km to go.

By the next climb, the penultimate Leberg, the decisive move had formed. Boonen and his teammates Niki Terpstra (The Netherlands) and Stijn Vandenbergh (Belgium), moved up the road with Stannard. Soon, a trio of chasers darted from the peloton. Zdeněk Štybar (Czech Republic) represented Etixx’s reinforcement, Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium/LottoNL-Jumbo) dreamed of a second title after putting a couple of punctures behind him and Greg van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) hoped to distract from recent doping suspicions.

The chase could get no closer than 17-seconds so Etixx plotted its strategy as the finishing city of Gent moved closer. Boonen opened the proceedings with 4-km to go, followed quickly by Terpstra’s dig that was oddly closed down by Boonen. But Stannard had had enough and decided to counterpunch. With the finish line 2.5-km away Stannard lowered the hammer and only Terpstra could go with him. Cat-and-mouse threatened to let Boonen back into the mix, but the 2012 British champion powered by Terpstra to take the victory.

As in the women’s race, a team placed three in the top four but didn’t take the win.

. richardmoore73: Irony: a Sky rider shows that cycling is not always about numbers #OHN

— Paul Sherwen (@PaulSherwen) February 28, 2015

Canadian Hugo Houle (Ag2r) placed just outside the top-20 at 21st, 4:55 behind Stannard. Antoine Duchesne (Europcar) was 74th, 10:19 back.