After the excitement of Sep Van Marke’s win this morning at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the excitement for tomorrow’s K-B-K is only more tangible. Many of the big names return to racing immediately tomorrow morning, pulling double-duty to kick of the Classics season. Tom Boonen and Juan Antonio Flecha, two of today’s trio in the finale return with very strong teams again in support. Flecha and SKY will be especially bolstered by last year’s KBK winner Chris Sutton and World Champion Mark Cavendish who is fresh off wins at the Tour of Qatar. Cav’s old teammate and new rival Andre Griepel, too, joins the melee Sunday, along with Mark Renshaw in his first true showdown against Cav and Griepel.
KBK is less selective in the finale than Omloop, with the final climb coming much further out from the finish and less sever cobble sections in the final run-in. If Omloop serves as a mini Ronde van Vlanderaan, KBK is a Milan-San Remo dry run for the sprinters to measure themselves and each other. Tyler Farrar threatened last year with a strong Garmin team, even after ‘Tornado’ Tom Boonen launched a furious attack with six kilometers to go. The move nearly put the sprint teams out of sorts, but the big trains of Garmin, SKY, Omega and FDJ got on track to deliver a flying finish. Chris Sutton of Team SKY had enough to hold his lead after a fierce kick off the wheel of Edvald Boasson-Hagen, who will be sitting out the 2012 edition due to illness.
Check back bright and early, 8am, for livestream links and live tweets of the 2012 Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
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