Lotto Belisol's Andrei Greipel won the Brussels Cycling Classic race this afternoon, just beating Argos Shimano's John Degenkolb in a sprint.
A 201km one-day classic, which attracted a strong field saw the race coame back together with seven kilometres to go, however just before this a large crash put several riders out of contention for the finish.
At the finish, the last 300m were slightly down hill and Greipel just had the edge to take the win.
"Today was very stressful," said a disappointed Degenkolb to the Argos Shimano press office: "It took quite a while for the break to get away at the start, and then there was a lot of corners and tight roads but that is normal for Belgium and I actually like this type of racing. In the end it was a really hard finish. The team did a really good job especially Roy Curvers, who was really strong in the end and it would have been nice to give something back to them after their hard work.
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