Tour of Flanders 2016

The road

How it was won

1. 1118 km to go

   Tony Martin blows it apart

   Over the top of the Molenberg, Tony Martin puts his time-trial engine to work and the peloton simply comes apart behind him. Around 25 riders go clear with the German before a second group claws its way back on ahead of the Paddestraat.

2. 270 km to go

   The break becomes seven

   On the tenth climb of the day the escape reshuffles itself: Gruzdev and Claeys arrive, Greipel's group bridges, and seven leaders head for the Oude Kwaremont with two minutes in hand.

3. 336 km to go

   A sprint up the Taaienberg

   Devolder, Vanmarcke, Trentin and Keukeleire slip away before the berg, and the answer is brutal: Cancellara, Sagan, Štybar, Boonen, Kwiatkowski and the Sky pair sprint up the cobbles to drag themselves into the front group. Stannard is swallowed whole.

4. 426 km to go

   The two world champions go

   On a false flat at Nukerke, Kwiatkowski and Sagan accelerate and Vanmarcke digs himself inside out to make it across. Panic ripples through the chase as the last two world champions and a thoroughbred Flandrien go over the Kruisberg and join the leaders with 26km to run, forty seconds clear.

5. 516 km to go

   Cancellara's last charge

   The third ascent of the Oude Kwaremont settles it. Kwiatkowski cracks and slides backwards, while behind, Fabian Cancellara storms up the cobbles alone with nobody in the bunch able to hold his wheel — and still crests twelve seconds down on Sagan and Vanmarcke. On the wide roads of the N36 the Swiss is reeled back in by Terpstra, Claeys and Erviti, and the race is gone.

6. 613 km to go

   Seated, on the Paterberg

   Sagan never leaves the saddle. On the 20 per cent ramps of the Paterberg the world champion simply winds up the gear and Sep Vanmarcke comes off his wheel. Cancellara collects the Belgian at the summit, but the rainbow jersey is already disappearing over the crest.

7. 7At the line

   Sagan takes his first Monument

   Thirteen kilometres alone in the rainbow jersey and Peter Sagan wins the 100th Tour of Flanders — the first Monument of his career, taken in the most emphatic way imaginable.

The result