Luke Rowe bags fifth in Tour of Flanders

Luke sprints to 5th place in Tour of Flanders 2016

 

100th edition of Tour of Flanders marks Luke’s best ever finish in a Monument, signalling his form is where it needs to be ahead of Paris Roubaix next weekend.

 

Here is what Luke had to say about the race

‘That was a great race, the team rode really well. After the Koppenberg we said we wouldn’t let a move go away without a Sky rider in it, which we stuck to – we had guys in every move. 

After that, its really a case of positioning yourself as best as possible for the Kwaremont, riding up as fast as youcan and seeing what the state of play is at the top. 

On the Paterberg – I got across to G’s group with Kristoff, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to see the front of the race again.

I got up there in the sprint, so on a personal level, I am really happy.

 

Here is Team Sky’s report of Tour of Flanders 2016

The Welshman was part of a committed performance in the Flemish cycling heartland, sprinting home to pick up Team Sky’s best result in the Belgian Monument to date.

The team were represented well with numbers to the fore during much of the epic 255-kilometre Classic, providing a great tactical platform for attacks.

The most significant of which came from Michal Kwiatkowski, who launched a long-range move with 32km to go – a powerful acceleration that drew a reaction from Peter Sagan and Sep Vanmarcke.

Once again the final one-two punch of the Oude Kwaremont and the Paterberg proved to be decisive, with Sagan (Tinkoff) pushing clear on the former, distancing Kwiatkowski before ramming home his advantage on the final climb of the day. The end result was a superb solo victory for the world champion, 25 seconds ahead of Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo).

Rowe and Geraint Thomas were able to haul their way into the third group on the road, ultimately contesting the sprint for fourth as Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo) rounded out the podium positions.

 

Source – Team Sky