Alexey Tsatevich (Katusha) may have mostly made a name for himself due to his fast sprint but today he proved that he is a much more versatile rider when he finished 10th at the Brabantse Pijl. The young Russian even had enough left in the tank to be involved in the attacking in the finale.

Russian rider Alexey Tsatevich of Team Katusha finished 10th in the bunch sprint at the one-day race De Brabantse Pijl, which ended today in Overijse.

“I felt really good the entire day and honestly, I am very happy I was there in the final because this was a very hard race with a lot of climbs," Tsatevich said. "With 10 km to go I felt good and did a little bit of attacking. It’s possible I lost some forces there that would have been useful in the final.”

The race of 203.1 km which started in Leuven, was characterized with the long-day 6-man breakaway, which was caught inside the final 20 km. After that moment a number of attacks marked the last part of the race, but into the final km the peloton came together.

Finally, everything was decided in the uphill sprint, won by Philippe Gilbert from BMC, who by photo-finish outsprinted Michael Matthews from Orica-GreenEdge. Tony Gallopin from Lotto-Belisol took third

Alexey Tsatevich was close to the leaders with his 10th position.

Sports director Gennady Mikhaylov added:

“The leaders today were Alexey and Alexander Rybakov and both of them were there in the end. Rybakov is a young guy so it was nice to see him there in the final as well.

"Aleksandr Porsev and Marco Haller were there for support today because we need fresh guys for tomorrow’s race. GP de Denain Porte du Hainaut is a flat course but there is always winds and many corners. We will have many chances.”

Tomorrow Team Katusha will take part in another one-day race GP de Denain Porte du Hainaut.