GP E3 – Dries Devenyns «I was aggressive today in front of my fans, just like our sports manager Rik Verbrugghe asked me to be»

Acting as a sort of rehearsal for the Tour of Flanders that will be raced on Easter Sunday, the GP E3 certainly brought a lot of joy to Geraint Thomas (Sky), who won solo, while Fabian Cancellara (Trek) suffered great misfortune by crashing hard and fracturing two vertebrae.  In this mess of mixed fortunes, IAM Cycling did succeed in showing off its jersey with great aplomb, thanks to the long escape by Dries Devenyns.  Having made his move in the first hour of the race, Devenyns nevertheless found the strength to be alone at the front of the race after all his breakaway companions had already succumbed to the hard chasing peloton.  It took the attack of the final lead trio (Thomas, Stybar, Sagan) finally to absorb Devenyns on the Quaremont.  Then an inopportune flat rear tire with 20 kilometers to go was the final nail in his race.  Meanwhile, Sylvain Chavanel managed to maintain contact with the lead group, who were sprinting for 3^rd place behind Thomas and Stybar, and snagged himself an encouraging 20^th in the melee.

Having ridden off with five other riders in the day’s first break after 20 kilometer, Dries Devenyns spent more than 180 kilometers in the lead.  When asked about his race, the Belgian on the Swiss professional team was satisfied with his day out.  “I rode an aggressive race in front of my fans, just like our sports manager Rik Verbrugghe asked me.  I was in my backyard, and I received a lot of encouragement.  I was not riding my best at the start of the season due to a virus I was suffering from, but then I found my groove.  I am happy with my day, and it has done me a lot of good mentally.  I’m just disappointed not to have been able to finish with the main group that sprinted for 3^rd.  My puncture could not have come at a worse time.  Now all I need is to confirm these good feelings in the race on Sunday at Gent-Wevelgem.”

 For Eddy Seigneur, the directeur sportif for IAM Cycling accompanied by Rik Verbrugghe, the best news of the day came from Dries Devenyns exploits.  “Dries found the opening and held his own.  He was always leading on the climbs, and he was only missing a little extra oomph to be able to latch and hang onto Thomas, Stybar, and Sagan.  Unfortunately he had the late puncture, so was not able to help out Sylvain Chavanel coming into the finale.  For his part, Sylvain lacked the support that he would have needed to expect to be able to do better in a sprint among all those big names.”