It was a particularly poignant win for Gasparotto and his team, coming just three weeks after teammate Antoine Demoitie was killed in a crash in the Gent-Wevelgem.
The 258km behemoth of a race started calmly after a nasty crash in the neutral zone, as Fabio Felline (TFS) went over the handlebars and was forced to abandon before the race got officially underway. The Italian was taken to hospital for surgery on a broken nose and a skull base fracture.
It took over 30km for a break to form, which included Matteo Bono (LAM), Laurens de Vreese (AST), Laurent Didier (TFS), Alex Howes (CPT) and Kevin Reza (FDJ). The break went up to around four minutes, ebbing and flowing as the break and peloton crested the many short, sharp climbs, 34 in all.
That lead held steady for the 11 riders out front until Sky, AG2R La Mondiale and Orica-GreenEDGE worked together to reel them in, dropping the gap by a minute before the break countered, steadying just above three minutes clear as heavy rain began to fall.
With around 65km remaining, four riders went to bridge the gap, Niccolo Bonifazio (TFS), Gianni Meersman (EQS), Bjorn Thurau (WGG) and Tosh van der Sande (LTS), but with some of them having riders in the break, particularly Bonifazio, their progress was slow, and they were ultimately reabsorbed by the peloton 30km from home, along with six other riders from the break.
Significantly, three time winner Philippe Gilbert (BMC) dropped off the back of the peloton with 25km to ride, along with Giant-Alpecin's Tom Dumoulin. They were followed 10km later by last year's winner Michal Kwiatkowski (SKY), as the rain evidently made this year's running a very gruelling affair.
Alex Howes, having fallen back from the break, then led Cannondale's charge to hunt down the rest, and along with Etixx-QuickStep, Orica-GreenEDGE and LottoNL-Jumbo, the break were caught 14km from the line, after a 200km charge.
First Roman Kreuziger (TNK) and then Tim Wellens (LTS) made attempts to break away in the closing stages. Wellens time trialled on the descent to the final climb of the Cauberg, the 34th and final climb of the day, taking a lead of almost 20 seconds up the climb.
Wellens was caught on the way up the climb, the chase led by Sep Vanmarcke and his LottoNL-Jumbo team. But when the Belgian was picked up, instead of Vanmarcke it was Gasparotto who rode away from the bunch.
Valgren went with him as the rest looked to each other, and the wily veteran Gasparotto coaxed the Dane into doing much of the work on the flat run to the finish, avoiding a strong headwind in the process.
With 200m left and the rest of the bunch closing in, Gasparotto launched his sprint, leaving his tired companion behind him, and pointing to the skies as he crossed the line in memory of his teammate. Bardiani-CSF's Sonny Colbrelli won the sprint for third, meaning it would be two ProTour teams on the podium.
Tim de Waele
Race winner Enrico Gasparotto (WGG):"I was lucky that Valgren came with me, I wouldn't have won if I'd been alone because there was a super strong headwind over the top. I was maybe lucky that it wasn't Roman Kreuziger too, because we would have played a bit before the sprint. Instead Valgren was happy to pull to make sure he came second at least, and I was able to wait and wait for the sprint."
Race results:
1. Enrico Gasparotto (WGG) 6:18:02
2. Michael Valgren (TNK) + :00
3. Sonny Colbrelli (BAR) + :02
4. Bryan Coquard (DEN) + :02
5. Michael Matthews (OGE) + :02
6. Julian Alaphilippe (EQS) + :02
7. Diego Ulissi (LAM) + :02
8. Giovanni Visconti (MOV) + :02
9. Loic Vliegen (BMC) + :02
10. Tim Wellens (LTS) + :02
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