Greipel wins Omloop Eurometropool in bunch sprint

Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) claimed his first win since stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday, sprinting to victory in the inaugural Omloop Eurometropool in Belgium.

Geipel took the win ahead of Bert Van Lerberghe (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Tom Devriendt (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) on a day when the peloton was loathe to let any groups get more than a minute advantage. The 177km 1.1 race started in Nieuwpoort and finished with three closing laps in Poperinge after a day of racing on relatively flat roads.

"It was a really fast race; the average speed was around 48 kilometres per hour," Greipel said. "It was also very uncontrolled, as we expected it to be, and we sent Tosh Van der Sande up front in the main breakaway."

The initial breakaway of 13 riders took a long time to establish and never gained more than 30 seconds on the field. It was ultimately brought back with 90km remaining, and the race reshuffled again.

Attacks lifted the pace, but nothing of significance could stick until Alexis Gougeard (AG2R) and Brian van Goethem (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) sneaked off the front and built a small gap. It was not to be, however, as Lotto Soudal were determined to set up their German sprinter, and they pulled back the move before the race entered Poperinge. Another group of seven tried to get away on the circuits, but Lotto Soudal nullified that move as well.

"We took the control of the peloton with 30km to go, and we made sure the race would end in a bunch sprint," Greipel said. "Tosh [van der Sande], Moreno [Hofland], Jens [Debusschere] and Jasper [de Buyst] led me out perfectly. We stayed calm and we rode strongly in the finale."

The win provides a morale boost for Greipel, who recently won field sprints in the Primus Classic and Omloop van het Houtland Lichtervelde after the winning moves went up the road.

"This victory is a relief for me," Greipel said. "Although I won my two previous sprints, these were not for the win. I always tried to keep calm, but that's not easy when you don't win.

"I felt that the confidence between the team and me was still intact and I was sure that I would eventually get back to winning. I'm really happy with our performance today. There is another opportunity tomorrow, and we have riders, like Jasper De Buyst, who can do well in races like this."

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