Denmark’s Asgreen victorious in Tour of Flanders
Dane Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick Step Team) has won this year’s Tour of Flanders, one of the highlights of the Flemish cycling calendar. The Danish rider managed to put space between himself and Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands in the final sprint. Fleming Greg Van Avermaet was third finishing some 30 seconds behind the leaders.
Asgreen completed the 255km race over the ancient cobble stones of Flanders and up and down hills like the Kwaremont and the Patersberg in no more than 6 hours two minutes and 1 second.
With the Dannebrog emblazoned upon his shirt the rider was first to cross the finish of this the 105th outing of the race in Oudenaarde (East Flanders) and to complete a journey that had started in Antwerp at 10AM.
It was 27km from the finish that the 26-year-old from Kolding upped the pace. Only Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert managed to stick with him. Van der Poel accelerated in turn just ahead of the summit of the Old Kwaremont – some 17 km from the finish. The Dane, who measures 1m92, managed to stay with him, while Van Aert’s exhaustion showed and 9km from the finish he was joined by the pack.
For the Danish rider this is the 8th win of his career. Earlier this year he raced to victory in the celebrated E3 race at Harelbeke (West Flanders). He is only the second of his countrymen to win the Tour of Flanders, an accomplishment that Rolf Sørensen managed in that historic year 1997.