Oudenaarde : Peter Sagan won the Tour of Flanders on Sunday and dedicated his victory to Belgian cyclists Antoine Demoitie and Daan Myngheer, who died last week.
Sagan timed his attack to perfection, breaking away on the final climb of the 100th edition of the race just over 13km from the end of the gruelling 255km trek from Bruges to Oudenaarde.
But after 6hr 10min in the saddle, and beating three-time winner Fabian Cancellara into second, with Belgian Sep Vanmarcke third, it was Demoitie and Myngheer who occupied Sagan's thoughts.
"I feel very good, I'm very happy it was a super hard race from the start until the finish, always full gas," said the winner, who revealed he had some troubles during the race.
"I had a little bit of a problem after 100km, I had to change both wheels because I had a broken wheel.
"There were a lot of crashes, thanks to all my (Tinkoff) team who did a great job.
"I have to think also about the two guys who died last week, it was very sad: I want to dedicate this to them."
Demoitie died after being hit by a motorcycle during last Sunday's Gent-Wevelgem cobbled classic, which Sagan won, while Myngheer suffered a heart attack during the Criterium International in Corsica and died on Monday in hospital.
There were crashes aplenty in the first half of the race, with Frenchman Arnaud Demare, winner of the season's first 'Monument' Milan-San Remo abandoning after hitting the tarmac.
One of the pre-race favourites, Belgian Greg Van Avermaet, was also unseated and suffered a broken collarbone that left him crying in frustration and flinging his helmet away in anger before being taken to hospital.
Sagan made his winning move around 30km from the end as he followed an attack by the man he deposed as world champion, Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski.
Cancellara, who was chasing a record fourth victory in his final season as a cyclist, missed that move and by the time they reached the penultimate climb, the Kwaremont, inside the final 20km, he had 30-seconds to make up.
Sagan and Vanmarcke broke away from an eight-man leading group on that climb as Switzerland's Cancellara blasted clear of the chasers behind.
On the final Paterberg climb, Sagan made his winning attack as Vanmarcke couldn't respond.
At the top of the Paterberg, with 13km left, Sagan had an 18-second lead on Cancellara, who had caught Belgian Vanmarcke.
It was a two-on-one race to the finish but Sagan, the amiable 26-year-old Slovak, had the strength to hold off the chasers.
Behind that, last year's champion Alexander Kristoff of Norway beat Britain's Luke Rowe in the sprint for fourth.
