Kittel takes record fourth win in Scheldeprijs
The German recorded his seventh victory of the season in a race which will now be forever linked to his name.
With two kilometers left of the 104th Scheldeprijs, Etixx – QuickStep hit the front with three riders, who were working to bring Marcel Kittel in an ideal position for the bunch sprint. Up until that point, the race had two breakaways in the spotlight, but neither has posed any danger to the peloton who was controlled by the sprinters’ teams. Unlike other seasons, this year’s edition of the Belgian event was much calmer, without any incidents or crashes to take some riders out of the equation.
After his teammates formed a strong lead-out and escorted him up until the final 300 meters, Marcel Kittel – who has already enjoyed success this season at Driedaagse De Panne – opened his powerful sprint and went down to the line against Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), winning for a tire’s width and scoring his seventh victory since joining Etixx – Quick-Step, which makes him the most successful rider of the season. Marcel, who made no secret of the fact that Scheldeprijs is one of the biggest goals of the season for him, has written history by finishing first, as he has now became the only rider to win the oldest Flemish race on four occasions.
Scheldeprijs 2016 results:
| 1 | Marcel Kittel (Etixx – QuickStep) |
4:54:05 |
| 2 | Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) |
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| 3 | André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) |
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| 4 | Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) |
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| 5 | Niccolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) |
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| 6 | Danny Van Poppel (Sky) |
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| 7 | Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) |
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| 8 | Wouter Wippert (Cannondale) |
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| 9 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
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| 10 | Daniel Mclay (Fortuneo – Vital Concept) |
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