Twitter reacts to Philippe Gilbert’s incredible Tour of Flanders win

The chapeaus flow in for Phil Gil
Henry Robertshaw

Philippe Gilbert took a stunning solo victory in the Tour of Flanders.

The Belgian champion went solo on the second ascent of the Oude Kwaremont with 55km remaining, and rode alone all the way to the finish to take a famous victory.

Behind there was plenty of drama, as crashes took down Sep Vanmarcke and Luke Rowe on the descent towards the first ascent of the Paterberg, then Peter Sagan, Greg Van Avermaet, and Oliver Naesen.

>>> Philippe Gilbert takes sensational solo win – Tour of Flanders 2017 as it happened

But such as was the style of Gilbert’s victory, that the vast majority of tweets barely mentioned the crashes, only offering congratulations to Gilbert.

We’re not normally ones for elaborate celebrations, but we’ll let Phil Gil off on this occasion.

Mark Cavendish was one of the first to offer his congratulations.

Fabian Cancellara was impressed by a solo ride that even Sparatacus would have been proud of.

Chris Froome made sure he was home from his training ride to watch the Ronde.

Marcel Kittel was impressed by the ride of his team-mate.

Michal Kwiatkowski was also impressed.

Away from Phil Gil, Cannondale were very happy with Dylan Van Baarle’s fourth place.

And Wanty-Groupe Gobert were also pleased with the performance of Yoann Offredo, who briefly led the chase up the Oude Kwaremont.

Luke Durbridge was one of many empty shells at the finish.

But it wasn’t to be for Luke Rowe, who was brought down in a crash with Sep Vanmarcke.