Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team took complete command of the race at the 199.8km Stage 1 of Driedaagse Van De Panne-Koksijde on Tuesday, putting the whole team on the front to chase down breaks, and putting pressure on the peloton at times with attacks from riders such as 2012 overall winner Sylvain Chavanel and Niki Terpstra.
Tom Boonen and Mark Cavendish were constantly present, with Boonen sitting on the front inside the final 14km after Damien Gaudin's (Team Europcar) solo ride was brought back at 16km to go. However, with a clear head-to-head battle between Cannondale and OPQS — Including Cavendish on the wheel of Cannondale rider Peter Sagan — Cannondale went on the offensive.
Sagan attacked, and Chavanel chased the the move down. Then, Cannondale countered with Alan Marangoni. Just as Marangoni was caught with a little more than 7km to go, Sagan accelerated again. This time Terpstra, Chavanel, and Oscar Gatto (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) went with him. This move stayed away until the finish, but a group of riders bridged to this group to form an escape group of about 9 or 10 riders inside the final kilometers.
Teams did their best to try and outwit Sagan and go for the victory. Chavanel attacked with 3km to go, but Sagan immediately marked him. It came down to a sprint finish with the escape group, and Sagan beat Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) in a photo finish. Chavanel was 4th, and Terpstra 6th.
"It's always better to stay in the front," Chavanel said. "With Niki we are the two cards to play for the GC, so I think today we did a good job. The tactic was to work for Cavendish for the sprint and eventually we followed the attacks in the final. Sagan made the race explode. But OK, we have few seconds in the GC and we can count on the TT in the next days."
"It wasn't necessarily a difficult day, it was more difficult to control," Cavendish said. "The wind wasn't really in a direction that could make a difference, but it was a difficult direction to just ride. It was almost a headwind, so you can't break the race apart, but still difficult to ride. But you know, we had two guys up there in the front in the end. We were reactive all day, we did what we could, but Sagan is pretty unbeatable right now. He's a once in a generation rider, for sure. As for tomorrow, it should be a sprint. Should break and come back together again, but we will see what happens."
"I have still a bit pain on the knee," Boonen said of his condition. "But considering that normally the second day after a crash is always the worst one, It wasn't so bad."
"It was a difficult day," Boonen said of the race. "The parcour is not so easy, but I think we did a good race as a team. Also, the two men for the GC were in the front, which is important."