Mark Cavendish won the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne classic this afternoon.
This 200km race in Belgium saw no attacks for the first hour but seven riders in Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Niko Eeckhout (An Post-Sean Kelly), Jérôme Baugnies (Team Netapp), Koen Barbé (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Gilles Devillers (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Justin Van Hoecke (Wallonie Bruxelles-Credit Agricole) and Julien Fouchard (Cofidis, le credit en ligne) got away.
The Team Sky riders at the front of the peloton chased them down and with nine kilometres to go, they were brought back.
This set up a bunch sprint and Team Sky were able to position Mark Cavendish just right as they bore down on the finish line. When Cavendish went, no-one was stopping him and although FDJ's Yauheni Hutarovich did his best to follow, it was the World Champion who won in a time of 4:27:30 ahead of Hutarovich and Kenny Van Hummel.
Adam Blythe finished 16th, Ian Stannard 80th, Mark McNally 98th, Jeremy Hunt 122nd, Alex Dowsett 132nd.
After the race, Mark Cavendish tweeted: "1st win in Europe this year. Absolutely buzzing. @TeamSky controlled it like a video game. Looks like the train is on track. So proud."
Pictures http://www.teamsky.com/gallery/0,27401,17548_7549973,00.html