It’s Gent – Wevelgem 1974; you’ve made it over the savage Kemmel climb twice with the lead group and survived hanging on the back of an Eddy Merckx (Belgium and Molteni) and Roger De Vlaeminck (Belgium and Brooklyn) driven purge on the run-in; there are 17 guys left, so maybe you would settle for a top ten? Not if your name is Barry Hoban (Britain and GAN-Mercier) and you feel that the ‘over-drive’ is in your legs.Watch the most comprehensive live & ad-free coverage of Gent-Wevelgem 2022 on GCN+. Go deeper and get interactive with live polls & quizzes, plus rider profiles, race updates, results & more plus stream original and exclusive cycling documentaries. Watch it all with GCN+ on any device.Photo courtesy of Woodrup Cycles, LeedsPerfect timing gave Barry Hoban the big Classic victory in Ghent-Wevelgem 1974. The Yorkshireman surprised a seventeen man star-studded group at the finish. Some of the Worlds best riders were in the group: Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, Eric Leman, Freddy Maertens, Walter Planckaert, Walter Godefroot and Frans Verbeeck, but it was Hoban who took the spoils. Merckx and Leman were sprinting for the line, the two riders took either side of the road, but it was Hoban who shot through between them.After failed attacks from Cees Bal and Patrick Sercu, followed by Merckx and Roger Swerts on the Kemmelberg, Roger De Vlaeminck came over the top of the Kemmel first. Frans Verbeeck tried his luck on the second climb of the Kemmelberg, the…
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