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Van Avermaet and Lepistö take Gent-Wevelgem titles

Second win in five days for Finn, second in three for Belgian

March 26, 2017
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It’s been a heck of a week for Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC) and Lotta Lepistö (Finland/Cervelo-Bigla) as they both won two Flanders races, with Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem victories the sweetest of the two. Van Avermaet took two WorldTour crowns within three days while Lepistö’s Women’s WorldTour GW title came after a UCI 1.1-rated triumph in mid-week.

The Women’s Race
Although Lizzie Deignan would be missing the race from sickness, all three winners of the first rounds of the Women’s WorldTour—series leader Elisa Longo Borghini, world champion Amalie Diderikson and Coryn Rivera—were lined up in Leper, as was Lepisto, the victor of Wednesday’s Dwars Door Vlaanderen.


The women had 146-km to race, with five hills, including a decisive trio of Baneberg, Kemmelberg and Monteberg running from kilometres 92 to 104.

Canadian Joëlle Numainville crashed inside the first 40-km before a breakaway had formed.

It was that final trio of climbs that unhitched several riders including Diderikson and streamlined the players for the end game down to about 35.

A flurry of attacks marked the final 20-km of the race, with some high-powered riders in the moves. The final break of Janneke Ensing and Olga Zebelinskaya (Russia/Bepink) was snagged back with 2-km to go.

In a close sprint Lepisto stayed ahead of Belgian Jolien D’Hoore and American dynamo Rivera for the win.

Alison Jackson (Bepink) was top Canadian, finishing 27th in the sprint pack. All three Canadians finished and Numainville soldiered on to be the last over the line.

Longo Borghini’s was 42nd but kept the WorldTour lead by five-points over compatriot Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM), ninth at Gent-Wevelgem.


The Men’s Race

Like the women’s race, the men’s edition was missing a contender through sickness—Cannondale’s Sep Vanmarcke. Otherwise all the heavies were accounted for: E3 Harelbeke champion Van Avermaet, Ian Stannard, Alexander Kristoff, two-time and reigning champion Peter Sagan, AG2R’s Oliver Naesen, who was third in Friday’s E3 Harelbeke, and Quick Step’s elite force of Fernando Gaviria, Tom Boonen, Niki Terpstra, Zdenek Stybar and Yves Lampaert.

The Baneberg and Kemmelberg were key to this race as well, though when the men’s field reached the duo at the 210-km mark of 249-km, they would be hitting it for the second time and at the end of 11 hills.


Before the start, the riders and race paid tribute to Antoine Demoitié, one year after his death at Gent-Wevelgem.


Canadian Hugo Houle (AG2R) was in the day’s breakaway, a nontet that scampered away in the first 20-km after the start in Deinze. After the first four hills and a lot of wind, and with 100-km to go, the gap was 6:30.


By the time the race had come to the Monteberg with 68-km to go, the break was down to just two riders, Houle and the others having faded back. In the peloton, first Sky and then BMC put in the big shifts to thin out the numbers. All the main contenders made the splits.

Only the Baneberg and Kemmelberg and gravel Plugstreets remained. When the peloton came out of the section of Plugstreets with 62-km remaining, Stybar forced a move. Trentin went with him and they hooked up with Houle and the remains of the breakway, but the peloton was hip to the danger and brought them all back. Only 2015 Belgian champion Preben Van Hecke (Belgium/Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) survived from the escape.

Kristoff suffered a mechanical with 50-km to go just before a crash took down his teammate Tony Martin and several others. A 50-strong peloton nabbed Van Hecke on the Baneberg. BMC’s Daniel Oss attacked and Dimension Data’s 2010 champion Bernie Eisel gave chase. Eisel also had to track down a surge from Jasper Stuyven (Belgium/Trek).

The decisive move was Van Avermaet’s on the Kemelberg. John Degenkolb reached him, as did Sagan, Terpstra, Stybar and 2009 winner Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data).


Another Quick Step rider muscled over with a few others. With 28-km to go this 14-rider selection, with Sagan riding at its rear, had a 20-second gap. Not all the riders were working in the front group and this caused a split. Van Avermaet, Sagan, Terpstra, Jens Keukeleire (Belgium/Orica-Scott) and Sunweb’s Dane Søren Kragh Andersen were now up front with their chasers unorganized.

With 15-km remaining, the two Belgians flared off the front and Sagan, Terpstra and Kragh Anderson were 10-seconds adrift.


The gap between the Belgians and three chasers stayed the same for 6-km, as Kragh Anderson missed his pulls. The field, which had picked up Degenkolb et al, was inching closer to the five players at the pointy end of the race.

But the gap to the leading duo increased. Could Keukeleire beat one of the best racers in the world to take a famous victory? It was a tough ask, and Van Avermaet prevailed. Sagan rounded out the podium. Van Avermaet now leads Sagan by 283-points at the top of the WorldTour standings.

Next Sunday is the Tour of Flanders.

2017 Gent-Wevelgem Women’s
1) Lotta Lopisto (Finland/Cervelo-Bigla)
2) Jolien D’Hoore (Belgium/Wiggle-High5) s.t.
3) Coryn Rivera (USA/Sunweb) s.t.
27) Alison Jackson (Canada/Bepink) s.t.
65) Leah Kirchmann (Canada/Sunweb) +7:08
102) Joëlle Numainville (Canada/Cylance) +7:16

2017 Gent-Wevelgem Men’s
1) Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC)
2) Jens Keukeleire (Belgium/Orica-Scott)
3) Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Bora-Hansgrohe)