2015 E3 Harelbeke

2015 E3 Harelbeke

2015 UCI World Tour, race 6 of 28
Reworked poster
Race details
Dates	27 March 2015
Distance	215.3 km (133.8 mi)
Winning time	5h 15' 00"
Results
Winner  Geraint Thomas (GBR) (Team Sky)   Second  Zdeněk Štybar (CZE) (Etixx–Quick-Step)   Third  Matteo Trentin (ITA) (Etixx–Quick-Step)
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The 2015 E3 Harelbeke was the 58th edition of the E3 Harelbeke cycling race, which took place on 27 March and was the sixth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour.^[1][2] The defending champion was Peter Sagan (Tinkoff–Saxo), who won the 2014 edition in a four-man sprint.^[3] The race, while important in its own right as part of the spring classics season, was seen as an important part of riders' preparation for the 2015 Tour of Flanders, one of the cycling monuments that took place on many of the same roads the following week.

E3 Harelbeke took place on roads in Flanders, starting and ending in the town of Harelbeke. The primary difficulty in the race was the series of short climbs known as hellingen, some of which were cobbled; most of these came in the middle part of the race, with a fairly flat final part.^[4]

The key move of the race was made on the Oude Kwaremont by Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Zdeněk Štybar (Etixx–Quick-Step) and Sagan. The three riders rode together for over 30 kilometres (19 miles), maintaining a gap to the chasing peloton. With approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) remaining, Thomas attacked and was able to take a solo victory, and became the first British rider to win the race.^[5] Štybar chased and was able to take second place, but Sagan was caught by the main peloton. Štybar's teammate Matteo Trentin won the bunch sprint for third place.

The other major feature of the race was a succession of crashes. Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL–Jumbo) slipped on the Paterberg, though this resulted in nothing worse than a broken shoe; however, a major crash early in the race caused significant problems for a number of riders. The worst affected was Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing), one of the major favourites for victory; he broke two vertebrae, ruling him out of the remainder of the classics season.