Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floor's) wins Dwars Door Vlanderen classic race 2017, Belgium Road.

Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floor's) wins 2017 Dwars Door Vlanderen Classic race.

Local boy Yves Lampaert capitalised on some top tactical work by Quick-Step Floors to take a solo victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Philippe Gilbert made it a double day of glory for the Belgian team, sprinting to second place from the three-man chasing group. Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) rounded off the podium, beating Luke Durbridge (Orica-Scott) into third place.
 Quick-Step had two cards to play in the finale and found themselves with a royal flush when it came down to the crunch. Lampaert laid the heavy groundwork on the final climbs before an attack from Gilbert on the Paterberg forced the race-winning split. Lampaert was one of the only riders who had the legs to follow Gilbert, along with Lutsenko and Durbridge.
 The quartet worked well together, pulling out a gap of over a minute, which was helped by a lack of co-operation behind. Even with 10 kilometres remaining, it became clear that the winner of the race would come from the four out front.

They worked well together until Gilbert finally broke ranks on the final stretch of cobbles. No sooner was Gilbert brought back than Lampaert made his own move. Lampaert, who missed most of the Classics last season after injuring his Achilles when his girlfriend accidentally ran into him with a shopping trolley, had to fight hard to build the gap but he knew the roads and eventually won by 37 seconds over his teammate. "For me it's a dream that came true. It's not that far from my home and I did a lot of recons to do this race. To win, for me it's a fantastic gift that I can give to the team and thanks to everybody," Lampaert said.

Top Ten overrall finish Results:

 Yves Lampaert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floor's 4:47:26,   2 Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:39, 
3 Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakstan) Astana Pro Team,
4 Luke Durbridge (Australia) Orica-Scott, 5 Dylan Groenewegen (Netherland) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:01:03,
6 Oliver Naesen (Belgium) AG2R La Mondiale,
7 Tiesj Benoot (Belgium) Lotto Soudal,
8 Dylan Van Baarle (Netherland) Cannondale-Drapac     9 Mitch Docker (Australia) Orica-Scott,
10 Florian Senechal (France) Cofidis, Solutions Credits.