Luke Rowe 'gutted' by fifth at Three Days of De Panne after puncture

Luke Rowe's chances of winning the opening stage of Three Days of De Panne were dashed by an untimely puncture.

The Welshman attacked as part of a four-man lead group that formed with 30km remaining, but a technical issue while climbing the Muur van Gerraardsbergen saw him ruled out of contention for victory in Zottegem.

Rowe would eventually go on to be Team Sky's leading rider on the day as he still managed to finish fifth, 29 seconds adrift of winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha).

Kristoff fought out the finish with Astana pair Alexey Lutsenko, who finished second, and Lieuwe Westra, while Rowe was just beaten by Mads Pedersen (Stolting Service Group) in a two-man battle for fourth.

Rowe told teamsky.com: "Gutted, yeah, that hits the nail on the head. From the get-go we rode well today, we always had guys on the front - the race was split right from kilometre zero and we had pretty much the whole team on the front.

"Everything went perfectly, we always had numbers, right up until that puncture.

"I felt pretty strong. I think Westra was the strongest in the break, he was pulling some really strong turns, but I felt pretty comfortable - well, as comfortable as you can expect.

"Once again, I'm just gutted to puncture at what was probably the worst moment in the entire race.

"It was right at the bottom of the Muur, so as soon as I got the fresh wheel I went absolutely flat out up there because I figured if I hadn't closed the gap by the top I'd probably never close it. I sprinted up that in a do or die effort."