Even though many believed Astana was in real trouble, squad’s Saturday’s performance in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad showed a completely different story. Michael Valgren added another victory to Astana’s February ones with a perfect finish at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad after an intense solo attack.
A few minutes behind Valgren was Team Sky’s other rider Lukasz Wisniowski who fought to get second place ahead of EF Education First-Drapac’s Sep Vanmarcke.
Beautiful podium with three talented riders! Congrats @MichaelValgren, @lukaswisniowski and @sepvanmarcke #OHN18 pic.twitter.com/hVXh3SZlyo
— OmloopHetNieuwsblad (@OmloopHNB) February 24, 2018
Goals worth fighting for
“After the Muur we got away in a big group. We had three guys and we needed to do something because we had some fast riders. We had Oscar there and Lutsenko who is also fast, so it was up to me to attack. I counter attacked Sep Vanmarcke and they were looking at each other for just five seconds and I was away,” Valgren said.
Without a doubt one of the most beautiful victories for @MichaelValgren! #OHN18 pic.twitter.com/QvijdNxoav
— OmloopHetNieuwsblad (@OmloopHNB) February 24, 2018
Valgren also admitted to feeling super happy about Saturday’s result and that he would like to see himself race with the big ones in the Tour of Flanders.
“It’s the only the second time that I’ve done these races. Last year was the first time and I was 11th in the Tour of Flanders. You also need to be lucky about the crashes and these races are stressful and full-gas. But they are a lot of fun,” he added.
