2017 Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
(1.1), Belgium
102nd edition: Friday, September 15, 2017
Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen (Championship of Flanders) podium history | 2016 edition | 2019 edition (we did not cover the 2018 edition)
Koolskamp - Koolskamp, 16 laps of 12.3 km, 192 kilometers total distance
Fernando Gaviria is the fastest man of the day
The race: Here's the story from winner Fernando Gaviria's Quick-Step Floors team.
Protected and guided by a fantastic team, 23-year-old Fernando Gaviria became the first South American rider to win Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen.
For the sixth year running, Quick-Step Floors have amassed 50 UCI victories, the first team to do this during the current season. Jack Bauer was the one to kick off the party early in January, at the New Zealand National ITT Championships, and since then, 13 of the team's riders have joined him on the winners' list, putting Quick-Step Floors at the top in Classics, week-long stage races and Grand Tours.
Fernando Gaviria is one of these riders, the prodigious Colombian who took the Giro d'Italia by storm in May, where he nabbed four stages and the coveted maglia ciclamino. Gaviria, who was forced to miss this summer's races through injury, has returned to action for only a few weeks now and slowly began building his form for the World Championships in Bergen, with the signs so far being very encouraging for the 23-year-old's prospects.
After notching up a stage at the Tour of Britain last week, Fernando added another victory to his palmares, this time at the 102nd edition of the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen, where he benefited from the help of a well-oiled Quick-Step Floors team, who controlled the race from its dawn, keeping a constant eye on the escapees and bringing them back in the second-to-last lap.
In the final kilometers, several riders tried to escape from Quick-Step Floors' clutches, but it was to no avail, as our riders shut down every move with remarkable ease and assembled an impressive lead-out train which delivered the Colombian in a perfect position to unleash his devastating sprint, one that netted the team's 50th victory of the season.
Gaviria – who beat Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Jasper De Buyst (Lotto-Soudal) – was all smiles at the finish in Koolskamp, acknowledging that this success augurs well before going to Norway, where he'll make his second World Championships outing.
"I'm really looking forward to that race; it will be very hard, also because of the weather, but I'm going there in good condition and very confident after this success, for which I want to thank my teammates, who put in a fantastic collective performance", said the first South American winner of the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen, who on Saturday will line out for Primus Classic, where he triumphed last season.
Sport director Rik van Slycke – himself a winner of the Belgian race in the '90s – was emotional at the finish line, and the reasons were obvious: "Today was a really special day for me, because it's exactly 25 years ago that I won this race. To win with the team again, 25 years later, it's just perfect. Without any strong winds to split the field, the tactic was to have all the guys there for the final and we executed the plan perfectly by controlling the race the whole day and bringing back the escapees. The lead-out was a textbook one and Gaviria finished it off by scoring the team's 50th win of 2017. We are really happy and satisfied with how we raced."
Complete Results:
192 kilometers raced at an average speed of 44.214 km/hr
1 | Fernando Gaviria | Quick-Step Floors | 4hr 20min 33sec |
2 | Dylan Groenewegen | LottoNL-Jumbo | s.t. |
3 | Jasper De Buyst | Lotto-Soudal | s.t. |
4 | August Jensen | Team Coop | s.t. |
5 | Aksel Nõmmela | Leopard Pro Cycling | s.t. |
6 | Roy Jans | WB-Veranclassic | s.t. |
7 | Rudy Barbier | Ag2r | s.t. |
8 | Emiel Vermeulen | Roubaix-Lille Metropole | s.t. |
9 | Timothy Dupont | Veranda's Willems-Crelan | s.t. |
10 | Konrad Geßner | Rad-Net Rose | s.t. |
11 | Jonas Rickaert | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | s.t. |
12 | Mark Renshaw | Dimension Data | s.t. |
13 | Jelle Mannaerts | Tarteletto-Isorex | s.t. |
14 | André Looij | Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij | s.t. |
15 | Jimmy Duquennoy | WB-Veranclassic | s.t. |
16 | Quentin Jauregui | Ag2r | s.t. |
17 | Timothy Stevens | Pauwels Sauzen-Vastgoedservice | s.t. |
18 | Jason van Dalen | Delta Cycling | s.t. |
19 | Maximiliano Richeze | Quick-Step Floors | s.t. |
20 | Kevin Deltombe | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | s.t. |
21 | Aidis Kruopis | Veranda's Willems-Crelan | s.t. |
22 | Guillaume Van Keirsbulck | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | s.t. |
23 | Twan Castelijns | LottoNL-Jumbo | s.t. |
24 | Berden de Vries | Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij | s.t. |
25 | Gaëtan Pons | Leopard Pro Cycling | s.t. |
26 | Lionel Taminiaux | WB-Veranclassic | s.t. |
27 | Lennert Teugels | Veranda's Willems-Crelan | s.t. |
28 | Thomas Gibbons | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | s.t. |
29 | Oliver Naesen | Ag2r | s.t. |
30 | Luc Wirtgen | Leopard Pro Cycling | s.t. |
31 | Boris Vallée | Fortuneo-Oscaro | s.t. |
32 | Tom Dernies | WB-Veranclassic | s.t. |
33 | Michael Goolaerts | Veranda's Willems-Crelan | s.t. |
34 | Jens Debusschere | Lotto-Soudal | +6'' |
35 | Gianni Marchand | Cibel-Cebon | s.t. |
36 | Edward Planckaert | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | +8'' |
37 | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg | Dimension Data | s.t. |
38 | Øivind Lukkedal | Team Coop | s.t. |
39 | Etienne van Empel | Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij | s.t. |
40 | Timo Roosen | LottoNL-Jumbo | s.t. |
41 | Thomas Deruette | WB-Veranclassic | s.t. |
42 | Coen Vermeltfoort | Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij | s.t. |
43 | Andrea Pasqualon | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | s.t. |
44 | Álvaro José Hodeg | Quick-Step Floors | +12'' |
45 | Mikaël Chérel | Ag2r | +15'' |
46 | Benoît Cosnefroy | Ag2r | s.t. |
47 | Kenny Dehaes | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | s.t. |
48 | Nicolas Vereecken | Roubaix-Lille Metropole | +17'' |
49 | Bert Van Lerberghe | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | +19'' |
50 | André Greipel | Lotto-Soudal | s.t. |
51 | Maxime Farazijn | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | s.t. |
52 | Sven Reutter | Rad-Net Rose | s.t. |
53 | Theo Reinhardt | Rad-Net Rose | s.t. |
54 | Jérémy Leveau | Roubaix-Lille Metropole | +23'' |
55 | Carmelo Foti | Leopard Pro Cycling | s.t. |
56 | Patrick Müller | BMC Racing | s.t. |
57 | Alexander Geuens | Pauwels Sauzen-Vastgoedservice | s.t. |
58 | Julien Antomarchi | Roubaix-Lille Metropole | s.t. |
59 | Gustav Höög | Team Coop | s.t. |
60 | Robert Wagner | LottoNL-Jumbo | s.t. |
61 | Julien Bérard | Ag2r | s.t. |
62 | Daan Meijers | Delta Cycling | s.t. |
63 | Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz | Quick-Step Floors | s.t. |
64 | Iljo Keisse | Quick-Step Floors | s.t. |
65 | Jérémy Lecroq | Roubaix-Lille Metropole | +28'' |
66 | Stijn Steels | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | +31'' |
67 | Jan Brockhoff | Leopard Pro Cycling | +35'' |
68 | Krister Hagen | Team Coop | +36'' |
69 | Wesley Kreder | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | s.t. |
70 | Dennis Coenen | Cibel-Cebon | s.t. |
71 | Andy Leigh | Tarteletto-Isorex | s.t. |
72 | Mark McNally | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | s.t. |
73 | Marcel Sieberg | Lotto-Soudal | +40'' |
74 | Frederik Veuchelen | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | +51'' |
75 | Amund Grøndahl | LottoNL-Jumbo | s.t. |
76 | Tom Devriendt | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | +55'' |
77 | Fabio Sabatini | Quick-Step Floors | +56'' |
78 | Nikolas Maes | Lotto-Soudal | s.t. |
79 | John Mandrysch | Leopard Pro Cycling | +58'' |
80 | Elias Van Breussegem | Veranda's Willems-Crelan | s.t. |
81 | Adriaan Janssen | LottoNL-Jumbo | +1' 03'' |
82 | Alexey Vermeulen | LottoNL-Jumbo | +1' 05'' |
83 | Nicolas Dougall | Dimension Data | +1' 09'' |
84 | Julien Stassen | WB-Veranclassic | +1' 11'' |
85 | Jempy Drücker | BMC Racing | s.t. |
86 | Florian Vachon | Fortuneo-Oscaro | +1' 16'' |
87 | Daniel McLay | Fortuneo-Oscaro | s.t. |
88 | Thibault Guernalec | Fortuneo-Oscaro | s.t. |
89 | Jan-Willem van Schip | Delta Cycling | +1' 28'' |
90 | Taco van der Hoorn | Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij | s.t. |
91 | Francisco Ventoso | BMC Racing | +1' 38'' |
92 | Kevin Verwaest | Tarteletto-Isorex | +1' 41'' |
93 | Moreno De Pauw | Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise | +1' 45'' |
94 | Styn Debock | Cibel-Cebon | +1' 49'' |
95 | Enzo Wouters | Lotto-Soudal | s.t. |
96 | Bram Welten | BMC Racing | +2' 04'' |
97 | Erwann Corbel | Fortuneo-Oscaro | +2' 08'' |
98 | Alan Riou | Fortuneo-Oscaro | +2' 47'' |
99 | Bernhard Eisel | Dimension Data | +2' 56'' |
100 | Davide Martinelli | Quick-Step Floors | +3' 03'' |
101 | Benoît Jarrier | Fortuneo-Oscaro | s.t. |
102 | Johann Van Zyl | Dimension Data | s.t. |
103 | Sjoerd Bax | Delta Cycling | s.t. |
104 | Lawrence Naesen | WB-Veranclassic | s.t. |
105 | Emiel Planckaert | Lotto-Soudal | s.t. |
106 | David Boucher | Pauwels Sauzen-Vastgoedservice | s.t. |
107 | Domenic Weinstein | Rad-Net Rose | +4' 21'' |
108 | Ryan Gibbons | Dimension Data | +5' 10'' |