Scheldeprijs: Kittel takes third title at sprinter’s Classic

Marcel Kittel won today’s Scheldeprijs in dominant fashion, sprinting clear of his rivals with 250m to go to claim the sprinters’ classic by several bike lengths. The win was Kittel’s third straight at the race.

Save for the finale, it was a relatively sedate day for the peloton, with riders waiting until Sunday to throw caution to the wind. A break of six took off up the road early, with Luke Rowe, Jan Ghyselinck, Ivan Balykin, Andrea Fedi, Alessandro Bazzana, and Dimitriy Groezdev included in the move. Their advantage stretched out to five minutes before before FDJ.fr took up the chase for their sprinter Arnaud Démare. For most of the race, the French squad shouldered the bulk of the responsibility at the front of the peloton while the other teams saved their lead-out trains in the draft.

As the race entered the finishing circuits, FDJ.fr was lagging and the breakaway still held a two-and-half minute advantage. By the final circuit, the French team had managed to knock a minute off of that gap, but it was only with 10km to go, when Omega Pharma- Quick-Step took charge of the chase for their sprinter, Alessandro Petacchi, that the expected bunch sprint became a sure thing. The gap then came down quickly as Tom Boonen took several massive pulls at the the front of the peloton to pull back the breakaway, which was beginning to come apart.

With 7km to go, Luke Rowe took a vain flyer, holding out solo until the 3km-to-go banner, where he was caught by the Omega Pharma-Quick-Step led peloton. Petacchi and Kittel’s lead out trains battled side-by-side over the final kilometre but no one could match Kittel when he launched his sprint. Tyler Farrar came in a distant second while Danny Van Poppel finished third. Both acknowledged Kittel’s superiority in post-race interviews, conceding that the German was on an entirely different level when he kicked.

Canada’s Antoine Duchense and Hugo Houle finished 62nd and 103rd respectively.