2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad - Ian Stannard Delivers - Final Kilometers

It was Team Sky’s first big breakthrough in true classics conditions at the 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, a total team effort over 198 kilometers of cold, rainy, windswept Flemish hills and cobbles, delivering Stannard to the decisive move - and, eventually, to victory - in a race that the favorite, Tom Boonen, later described as the coldest of his life.
And it looked like Stannard had finally delivered on his promise as a classics rider, capable of carrying the hopes of a Sky squad that had invested heavily to improve its chances in the big early season one-day races.
Four weeks later, at Gent-Wevelgem, the first major Belgian classic, the 26-year-old Briton disappeared into a ditch with 60km to go. He emerged, with considerable assistance, several minutes later.
His hopes for a breakthrough season stayed in the ditch.
Recalling the accident on Saturday, Stannard said, “Someone came across my front wheel, I saw the deep ditch and thought, ‘Don’t end up in there,’ but ended up in there upside down. I broke my back and then I had three months completely off my bike.
“You know, as a cyclist, you think, ‘I’ve done this, I’ll keep going,’ but it was one of them ones where you have to listen to the doctor, unfortunately. So I had three months completely off, just sat on the sofa. So it was a long time. I put on a lot of weight, got really unfit, and, you know, riding the bike was a bit of a struggle again.”
It didn’t get better. In the first stage of what was supposed to be his big comeback race, the Tour of Britain, Stannard crashed and fractured his wrist, stamping an ugly exclamation point on an already star-crossed season.
Bu on Saturday, under sunny early spring skies, Stannard was finally, truly back, cleverly parrying attacks by a formidable trio of Etixx-Quick-Step riders to take his second consecutive Omloop win.
He had ridden well already this season, finishing fourth overall in the Tour of Qatar, but Saturday’s race was his first real test. On the roads where he most aspires to win, outnumbered and, arguably, outgunned by Niki Terpstra, Tom Boonen, and Stijn Vandenbergh, Stannard played his cards perfectly.