2016 Gent–Wevelgem
The 2016 Gent–Wevelgem, (officially Gent–Wevelgem – In Flanders Fields) was a one-day cycling classic that took place on 27 March 2016. It was the 78th edition of the Gent–Wevelgem race and the seventh event of the 2016 UCI World Tour. The race followed a 243-kilometre (151 mi) course that started in Deinze and ended in Wevelgem in Belgium, with a portion of the race spent in northern France. The race included ten climbs, several of them cobbled, which provided the principal difficulty in the race. The last and most difficult climb was the Kemmelberg. The favourites for the race included Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), Fabian Cancellara (Trek–Segafredo), and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff).
| 2016 UCI World Tour, race 7 of 28 | |||||||||||||
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| Race details | |||||||||||||
| Dates | 27 March 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Stages | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Distance | 243 km (151.0 mi) | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 5h 55' 16" | ||||||||||||
| Results | |||||||||||||
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The race was won by Sagan, who escaped with Cancellara and Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL–Jumbo) on the Kemmelberg after a series of splits had occurred in the first half of the race. They were joined by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov (Team Katusha), who had been in the day's early breakaway, and the four-man group came to the finish together. Sagan won the sprint, with Vanmarcke second and Kuznetsov third.
During the French portion of the race, the Belgian rider Antoine Demoitié (Wanty–Groupe Gobert) crashed and was then hit by a race motorbike. He died that evening.