HTC-Columbia’s Bernhard Eisel has blasted to victory in the Ghent-Wevelgem Classic on Sunday, outpowering five riders in a small group sprint.

Eisel took off with the other breakaways before the usually decisive Kemmelberg climb. The Austrian then outsprinted them at the finish in Wevelgem for HTC-Columbia’s second straight victory in one of Belgium’s biggest Classics and top ProTour events.

 

“If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from here, and I think quite a few people were surprised by this result, but everything fell into place for me to win even before the race happened,” Eisel said.  “We took the right decision to check out the new Ghent-Wevelgem climbs beforehand and not participate in the E-3 Harelbeke Classic immediately before Ghent-Wevelgem.  When we took part in this race we were rested and in good shape, knew what was coming up and we were ready to go.  I felt in good form here, but my teammates really helped put me in a great position for the win. Matt Goss and Hayden Roulston are two names I’d like to mention but everybody did a great job.”

Eisel said there was no doubt this was the high point of his career so far - but he will be looking for more big results this spring.  “Winning stages in the Tour of Switzerland was good, and leading there was something very special, too.  But this is Ghent-Wevelgem.  It’s a major Classic and it’s always been one of my biggest dreams to take a race like this. And after this, who knows what could happen in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix?”

“Bernie won it by two bike lengths,” said HTC-Columbia sports director Tristan Hoffman.  “The other guys tried everything they could to get rid of Bernie because they knew he would be the fastest if it came down to a sprint but it just wasn’t possible.  HTC-Columbia had been on the front all day, Bernie and Marcel [Sieberg] and Matt [Goss] were all working away and keeping everything under control.”

“There were some new climbs before the Kemmel, which we’d checked out and ridden over on the Friday before the race and that was where it all split apart.  There were groups everywhere but Bernie stayed calm, got into the right break and then played it perfectly at the finish.”