Luca Paolini (Katusha) is the dark horse winner of Gent-Wevelgem. The Italian veteran surged away from the lead group with five km left to take a rainy, windswept edition of the Belgian classic. Paolini traversed the 210-km course in 6:20:55. Niki Terpstra (Etixx-Quick Step) outsprinted Geraint Thomas (Sky) for second at 0:11.

The gloomy conditions dominated the race, and only 39 of 200 starters finished. An hour elapsed before a break formed. Tim Kerkhof (Roompoot Oranje), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Albert Timmer (Giant-Alpecin), Alex Dowsett (Movistar), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank), Jesse Sergent (Trek), and Mirko Tedeschi (Southeast) sallied off of the front and forged a nine-minute lead as the peloton split. The wind blew riders such as Geert Steegmans (Trek), Martin Velits (Etixx-Quick Step), and Lars Bak (Lotto-Soudal) off the road and caused riders such as Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step) to crash.

The race entered France, and the lead group caught the break. Two other groups joined the lead group to form a reduced peloton.

As the race approached the Kemmelberg for the first time, Martin Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo) attacked. The Dutchman reached led the field by 0:25 at the base of the fabled climb. The favorites’ teams shepherded those heads of state who remained up the ascent.

With 75 km to go, Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal) bridged up to Tjallingii. Four km later, Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-Quick Step) punctured and dropped off of the pace. Stybar’s teammate Stijn Vandenbergh accelerated and split the lead group. Roelandts dropped Tjallingii, and with 65 km remaining, the Lotto-Soudal man led a chase group consisting of Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas, Daniel Oss (BMC), and Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Soudal) by 0:44. Four km later, Paolini joined the chase group. Eventually, Thomas and Terpstra left the favorites’ group and joined the chasers.

On the second approach to the Kemmelberg, Roelandts led the chasers by 1:45. The gap grew to 2:00 on the second ascent of the Kemmelberg, but Terpstra led the pursuit, which cut Roelandts’s advantage to 0:49 with 29 km remaining. Twelve km later, Roelandts’s sortie was history.

Terpstra and Paolini dropped their companions, but Thomas charged up to the pair with 12 km left. Vandenbergh, Vanmarcke, and Debusschere joined as well. The leaders seemed to be heading for a sprint when Paolini attacked with six km remaining. The Italian was brought back, but he tried again one km later. His erstwhile companions debated who should chase, and while they did so, Paolini rode. Eventually, Terpstra and Thomas chased, but they were too late. Paolini had plenty of time to celebrate one of the biggest wins of his career.

Paolini began the race at the service of team captain Alexander Kristoff, but when the Norwegian did not have his usual form, Paolini received his opportunity. “I am really happy today!” the Italian said. “I did not expect this, but we came here to help Alex[ander Kristoff], who proved to be in good shape. But in one moment he said that he didn’t feel so strong today and told me to try for myself. It was a very hard day with all the bad weather. I crashed two times, and I had to change the bike twice, but I still had the power to stay in front. In the final, I knew I had to avoid the sprint because I am not too fast in the sprint. I knew I had to attack. With six km to go, I tried to attack with 50 percent of my power to watch the reaction from the others. Nobody answered, so I went for 100 percent. I had luck on my side, and I won. Maybe this is the best victory of my career.”

Many of today’s riders will ride the Tour of Flanders next Sunday. Will the weather be better than it was today? Will Kristoff regain his form? Will another rider challenge for the win? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!