Van Poppel sixth at Scheldeprijs
Friday 8 April 2016 12:07, UK
Danny van Poppel sprinted to sixth place at Scheldeprijs after a hard day of racing in Belgium.
Danny van Poppel sprinted to sixth place at Scheldeprijs after a hard day of racing in Belgium.
It took a photo finish to split winner Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish, while Andre Greipel took third, with Van Poppel just missing out on a top-five finish.
The one-day race is traditionally seen as a sprinter's Classic and so it proved, with Kittel (Etixx - Quick-Step) taking a record fourth victory from a large bunch finish.
The peloton caught the day's break 40km from the line and, despite a few small attacks, a sprint looked nailed on from around 20km out.
The lead out trains began to form in earnest 3km from the finish and Elia Viviani looked poised in the bunch along with Van Poppel, but the Italian was unable to fully launch his sprint.
Tale of the day
Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Sander Helven (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Berden De Vries (Roompot), Steven Tronet (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) and Tomasz Kiendys (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) formed the day's break on a grey day in Belgium and the peloton allowed them to build a five-minute gap after 45 kilometres.
The peloton started to splinter as the chase began in earnest, but the echelons didn't prove to be decisive, and the bunch was back together by the time the break was caught.
The rain started to come down heavily with 40km remaining and, 32km from the line, Ian Stannard retired with one eye on Sunday's Paris-Roubaix.
On wet and slippery cobbles the racing in the peloton remained quite calm, and it was only in the final kilometres that the shackles started to come off, with the quick men set to duke it out for the win.
Etixx - Quick-Step built a formidable train for Kittel with Cavendish (Dimension Data) locked onto his wheel and the Manxman almost overhauled him in the closing stages, but the German held on for the win.
