The 2012 E3 Harelbeke was the 55th running of the E3 Harelbeke single-day cycling race.[1] It was held on 23 March over a distance of 203 kilometres (126.1 miles) and was the sixth race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season. E3 Harelbeke was held as a UCI World Tour event for the first time,[2] after previously being held as a 1.HC race on the UCI Europe Tour.[3] As well as its promotion to the World Tour, the race moved to a Friday running from a Saturday; the move was in order to give riders a day's break prior to the following World Tour event, Gent–Wevelgem.[4]
In a mass sprint finish, the race was won by Omega Pharma–Quick-Step rider Tom Boonen,[5] who in the process, became the most successful rider in the history of the race; his fifth victory – after four previous victories in succession between 2004 and 2007 – in Harelbeke took him beyond the record tally of four victories that he had been sharing with fellow Belgian rider Rik Van Looy.[6] Boonen finished ahead of Team Katusha's Óscar Freire and Team Sky's Bernhard Eisel, who completed the podium.[7]
Teams
Route of E3 Harelbeke 2012
As E3 Harelbeke was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Seven other squads were given wildcard places into the race,[8] and as such, formed the event's 25-team peloton.
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