Philippe Gilbert of Francaise des Jeux won Omloop Het Volk for the second time in three years Saturday in Belgium, attacking the favorites with 60 km to go, bridging the gap to the breakaway and then motoring away with 22 km to go.

Gilbert, who also won in 2006 and overcame a cancer scare last year, won the 196 km jaunt over cobbles and climbs in 4 hours 55 minutes 22 seconds, 58 seconds ahead of Nick Nuyvens of Cofidis in the opener of the spring classics season.

Most impressively, Gilbert triumphed over a star-studded field that included Thor Hushovd of Credit Agricole, Fabian Cancellara of CSC, and Quick Step stars Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini.

Download 

Big news for U.S. cycling fans was the performance of Michael Friedman of Slipstream-Chipotle. Friedman jumped into the initial breakaway with Alexsandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), Sebastien Minard (Cofidis), Arnaud Gerard (FDJeux), David Boucher (Landbouwkrediet) and Yuriy Krivtsov (Ag2r-La Mondiale). Friedman ended up 12th overall, 1:58 behind Gilbert and just ahead of world time trial champ Cancellara.

On the downside for Slipstream, Tyler Farrar crashed with about 60 km to go, tho he was able to finish. Farrar’s had some bad luck lately. He was forced to abandon in Stage 3 of the Tour of California because of illness. He was wearing the yellow jersey as the race leader at the time.

Farrar’s run of bad luck is nothing like the angst in Belgium after the performance of its marquee team, Quick Step. The team reacted poorly to Gilbert’s attack and was no where near the front at the end of the race. Pre-race favorite/rock star Boonen finished 85th (6:35 behind Gilbert) and world champion Bettini ended up 90th (6:38 back).

The Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne classic will be Sunday.

–30–