2016 Gent–Wevelgem
| 2016 UCI World Tour, race 7 of 28[1] | |||||||||||||
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 Map of the hills area of 2016 Gent–Wevelgem | |||||||||||||
| Race details | |||||||||||||
| Dates | 27 March 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 243 km (151 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 5h 55' 16" | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
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The 2016 Gent–Wevelgem, (officially Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields[2]) was a one-day Belgian cycling classic that took place on 27 March 2016.[1] It was the 78th edition of the Gent–Wevelgem race and the seventh event of the 2016 UCI World Tour. The race followed a 243-kilometre (151 mi) course that started in Deinze and ended in Wevelgem in Belgium, with a portion of the race spent in northern France. The race included ten climbs, several of them cobbled, which provided the principal difficulty in the race. The last and most difficult climb was the Kemmelberg. The favourites for the race included Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), Fabian Cancellara (Trek–Segafredo), and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff). The race was won by Peter Sagan.
Sagan escaped with Cancellara and Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL–Jumbo) on the Kemmelberg after a series of splits had occurred in the first half of the race. They were joined by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov (Team Katusha), who had been in the day's early breakaway, and the four-man group came to the finish together. Sagan won the sprint, with Vanmarcke second and Kuznetsov third.
During the French portion of the race, the Belgian rider Antoine Demoitié (Wanty–Groupe Gobert) crashed and was then hit by a race motorbike. He died that evening.
Route
[edit]
The route of the 2016 Gent–Wevelgem was significantly changed from 2015 edition and from previous editions. Several different climbs were used. Central among these was the decision to use a different side of the core climb in the race, the Kemmelberg. In previous years, the route chosen had a maximum gradient of 17%, but the 2016 edition used a road that had a section at 23%, described by Cycling Weekly as "excruciating".[3] The race director, Hans De Clercq, gave three reasons for the change: the cobblestones had recently been relaid; the 2016 edition marked the 60th anniversary of the inclusion of the Kemmelberg, with the difficult side used on that occasion; and there was a desire to give the race more of a balance between sprinters and attackers.[4] COTACOL, a Belgian work that lists and grades all the climbs in the country, rated the side of the Kemmelberg used in 2016 as the most difficult climb in Flanders: its grading of 183 points was more than the Koppenberg (172), the Muur van Geraardsbergen (171) or the traditional route up the Kemmelberg (152).[4]
The race started in Deinze in East Flanders, 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Ghent.[5] The route took the riders immediately into West Flanders. After 77 kilometres (48 mi) of flat roads, they came near the coast at Veurne. Here the route took the riders south into northern France; after 119 kilometres (74 mi) the peloton passed through Wormhout, then continued south of Steenvoorde, where there were the first climbs in the race. The first eight climbs came quickly, packed into a 32 kilometres (20 mi) stretch of road. The first climb was the Catsberg; this was followed by the Kokereelberg, the Vert Mon, the Côte du Ravel Put and the Côte de la Blanchisserie. The riders then returned to Belgium and climbed the Baneberg, the Kemmelberg and the Monteberg. There was then a flatter section, looping through Mesen, Ploegsteer and Nieuwkerke. The final two climbs were a repeat of the Baneberg–Kemmelberg combination. At the top of the final climb, there were 34 kilometres (21 mi) of fairly flat roads to the finish in Wevelgem.[6]
Participating teams
[edit]There were 25 teams selected to take part in the race. All 18 UCI WorldTeams were automatically invited;[7] the race organisers gave wildcard invitations to seven UCI Professional Continental teams. These included two Belgian teams (Wanty–Groupe Gobert and Topsport Vlaanderen–Baloise), two French teams (Direct Énergie and Cofidis), a Dutch team (Roompot–Oranje Peloton), an Italian team (Bardiani–CSF) and a Polish team (CCC–Sprandi–Polkowice).[8] Each team could include eight riders.[9] Orica–GreenEDGE's team of seven was the only one submitted with fewer than eight riders, but three riders (Team Sky's Ian Stannard, Team Katusha's Alexander Kristoff and AG2R La Mondiale's Alexis Gougeard) did not start the race; 196 riders therefore departed from Deinze.[10]
UCI WorldTeams[8]