Alexander Kristoff outfoxes Niki Terpstra to win Tour of Flanders

Katusha's Kristoff covered an attack by Terpstra of Etixx-QuickStep with 26 kilometres remaining of the gruelling 264km cobbled classic in Belgium, the pair holding on to contest a two-up sprint finish in Oudenaarde.

Kristoff, 27, kept his cool and waited until 2014 Paris-Roubix winner Terpstra made his move before putting in a decisive kick to add the Tour of Flanders to his swelling palmares after six hours, 26.38 minutes in the saddle.

Greg van Avermaert (BMC) completed the podium seven seconds adrift after dropping a cooked Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) on the closing straight while another Belgian, Tiesj Benoot of Lotto-Soudal, led a chasing group over the line for fifth place, 35 seconds down.

Team Sky controlled the peloton for much of the race despite an early crash for 2012 Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins. Welshmen Geraint Thomas made the final selection of the race but could only finish 14th place.

The race was soured by two incidents involving the neutral service cars: New Zealand's Jesse Sergent (Trek Factory Racing) was part of the day's main break when he was knocked off his bike by one of the Shimano-sponsored cars, while a collision between another Shimano car and the FDJ.fr team car also forced the withdrawal of FDJ's Sebastien Chavanel after the veteran Frenchman was sent sprawling on to the side of the road.

EIGHT-MAN GROUP: A hectic opening hour finally saw a group of eight riders come together on the front of the race. Matthew Brammeier (MTN-Qhubeka), Damien Gaudin (AG2R La Mondiale), Ralf Matzka (Bora), Dylan Groenewegen (Team Roompot), Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto Soudal), Marco Frapporti (Androni) and Sergent built up a maximum lead of six-and-a-half minutes before slowly breaking up.

First Sergent was sent flying - resulting in an expected broken collarbone - by a Shimano neutral service car whose driver had clearly misjudged the space between the young Kiwi and the curb. Then Frappori was dropped on one of the gruelling 19 cobbled climbs. Bak and Gaudin attacked with around 70km remaining before the remnants of the break were joined by a counter attack involving a particularly active Andre Greipel of Lotto-Soudal.

TERPSTRA ATTACK: Bak was swept up shortly after the pack completed the first of two ascents of the Paterberg climb, leaving Gaudin alone on the front of the race. Pace-setting by both Sky and Etixx had nullified the threat from the counter attack with 50km remaining.

Once Frenchman Gaudin was caught, German national champion Greipel put in his second solo attack of the day just ahead of the Koppenberg climb. Kazakhstan's Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) caught and passed the Lotto-Soudal sprinter, who was joined by Sylvain Chavanel of IAM Cycling.

The race came back together with a streamlined pack forming with 28km - and two climbs - remaining. Terpstra - who had been earlier dropped on the Taaienberg climb - surprised his rivals with an attack ahead of the third and final ascent of the Oude-Kwaremont.

Spotting the danger - and sniffing an opportunity - Kristoff dug deep to join the Dutchman on the front of the race. Second in last month's Milan-San Remo and in hot form after three wins in last week's Three Days in De Panne, Kristoff rode like a rider at the top of his powers.

If joint pre-race favourite Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL-Jumbo) struggled to stay in the front group, Thomas - the recent winner of E3 Harelbeke - showed more promise. Once all his team-mates had dropped back, Thomas could rely on fellow Welshman Luke Rowe before putting in his own attack on the Kwaremont.

Thomas was joined by Zdenek Sybar of Etixx-QuickStep - but with team-mate Terpstra up the road, the Czech national champion could afford to be a dead weight.

KRISTOFF CLEANS UP: The two leaders just needed to survive the final climb of the Paterberg - and despite digs from Van Avermaet and Sagan, they held an advantage of 30 seconds going over the top ahead of the run-in to Oudenaarde.

Van Avermaet and Sagan were unable to eat into the gap while behind, in a chasing group of around 10 riders, there was little to no cohesion. Milan-San Remo winner John Degenkolb was there, but the German powerhouse had clearly used up most of his energy to stay in contention.

Terpstra forced his rival to set the pace in the final kilometres, but such was the gap, Kristoff had the luxury of slowing right up ahead of the finish. Knowing he had the edge over Terpstra in the sprint, Kristoff waited until the time was right before kicking clear to the second monument of his career.

"I'm really happy to win today with my family here with me," Kristoff said with his son in his arms. "It's a big dream and the whole team worked great. Niki [Terpstra] didn't want to work with me today but I felt really good.

"Niki went early before the climbs and I knew he was one of the most dangerous guys from Etixx and so I knew I had to do something."

Asked whether he would try and make it a cobbled double with victory in next Sunday's Paris-Roubaix, Kristoff said, "I hope - but for now I'm just happy to have won this. I usually suffer a lot after Flanders so we will see how Roubaix goes."

The top ten was completed by Lars Boom (Astana), Degenkolb, Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal), Stybar and Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling).