Things were looking differently when Niki Terpstra claimed his first Dwars door Vlaanderen title back in 2012, as Sylvain Chavanel played a role of his reliable support in the Omega Pharma-Quick Step formidable classics unit. Finally being his own man and the IAM Cycling unquestionable leader, the 34-year old Frenchman was in a position to chase the Dutchman for the final glory this time around, but eventually admitted the supremacy of the latter and settled for a fifth place claimed in the Flemish event.

The indecisiveness was apparent within a reduced group of favorites when Terpstra accelerated on the Paterberg, what let the Dutchmen to go clear and quickly open a gap of over ten seconds. An advantage of the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider grown to about twenty seconds before a small chasing group consisting of Stijn Devolder, Alejandro Valverde, Gert Steegmans and Nicki Sorensen has been formed, however, they never managed to significantly reduce the gap and were eventually caught by the peloton.

While Terpstra soloed his victory in the convincing style, the following standings were decided in a bunch sprint with Tyler Farrar (Garmin Sharp) being the fastest. Chavanel managed to challenge fast finishers to cross the line as fifth and expressed his satisfaction about the result, claiming, that the 29-year old Dutchman proved too strong yesterday to be surpassed.

"There was nothing to be done against Terpstra today," said Chavanel, who finished the day in 5th place, near the front of the chasing group that came home 17 seconds down on Terpstra.

"I didn’t have good sensations at all at the start, but eventually everything improved as the day went on. So this 5th place finish augurs well and I’ll take it without any regrets."

While Chavanel was often sent up the road as a part of Omaga Pharma-Quick Step early offensive, the tables have turned for the Frenchman in IAM Cycling just as he wished and Aleksejs Saramontis was responsible to make an early move and let his leader save some strength for the finale.

Even though Saramontis ws still off when Terpstra launched his decisive attack, he didn’t have enough in his tank left to match an acceleration of the 29-year old Dutchman.

"He tried to follow Terpstra up the Paterberg, but he just didn’t have the reserves for an effort like that," said directeur sportif Eddy Seigneur.

"That didn’t prevent him from providing invaluable assistance to Chavanel in the lead-up to the final sprint."

Chavanel was well-positioned in leaders’ group when the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider accelerated, and later, when the chasing group went clear, but eventually hasn’t decided to join the effort and settled for the fifth place taken in the bunch sprint.

"It wasn’t bad at all if you consider that I finished 4th in a sprint where I was there with guys like [Tyler] Farrar, [Borut] Bozic, [Oscar] Gatto and [Yauheni] Hutarovich," said Chavanel, who will hope for more at E3 Harelbeke on Friday.

"Sure, this is only a minor placing but I’m racing again in two days."