Mar 7th, 10. Kiwi Clinton Avery won the UCI 1.2 Vlaamse Pijl race in Belgium today.  He won the sprint from a powerful burst  while leading out his teammate after a long breakaway.

Top of the podium for Clinton Avery in Belgium 

In today's race he stayed upright and in front all the way to the finish line in the 151km one day race.

"I was really nervous going into the race because for starters it was a 1.2 so there are pro teams racing it. It is also the closest sort of race to the Tour of Flanders I can do until I am pro," Avery told RoadCycling.co.nz after his great win.

"The Tour of Flanders [U23] is one of my favorite races and I am good at it so I knew I should be good at this too. It was a max of 5 degrees and windy with a wind chill of 3 degrees. I hate the cold!"

Avery said the 188 rider peloton was nervous due to the dangerous combination of high winds and the steep cobbled climbs.  

After his crashes last week, two in the same race, Avery was feeling uncomfortable just sitting in the bunch so he looked for an opportunity to go up the road.

Avery and the Rabobank rider bridge to the leaders

"With the shit fight that was going to happen I was happy to be up the road."

Along with a Rabobank rider, Avery bridged to the two leaders at the bottom of the first cobbled climb.

Avery climbed incredibly well today, he was the first over many of the day's climbs which included the Oude Kwaremont which is ridden in the Tour of Flanders and the Omloop het Nieuwsblad.

At this stage the four riders only had a 50sec gap on the peloton and Avery knew the chances were high more riders would join them.

"I knew with the wind it was only going to be a matter of time before a group got to us.  About 30km later six more came across and that was it, race over - the gap to the peloton got bigger and bigger."

Avery had another PWS Eijssen teammate, Jens Debusschere, with him now but another team, Topsport, also had two riders.

"Coming into the finish laps we had a 2min gap over the chasing bunch so we had no problem staying away to the finish.  On the last lap the attacks started. I said to my teammate Jens that he should watch one Topsport rider and I would watch the other. It worked great and it meant the second rider would never have to chase."

In the last kilometre Avery's bunch was still together with all eight riders.

The riders and spectators were rugged up for the cold conditions

"We got a gap but it didn't look like it would hold, so the Topsport rider gave up. I kept my head down. I was caught crossing the bridge so I then turned into a leadout for Jens because I was too wasted to sprint."

Or so Avery thought.

"I went into the last turn that fast I gapped the others again and that was all I needed to stay away to the finish. I must have been sprinting better than I thought because I was actually pulling away in the sprint. I had long enough that I had time to look back and salute with 20m to go."

Avery is celebrating, but he said the win still hasn't sunk in quite yet.

"I hope my legs are as good next week in my next race," he said.

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Photos provided by Avery, taken by Alex Meenhorst (who is staying with Avery at the moment) and Lies Cleays .

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