The 2012 E3 Harelbeke was the 55th running of the
E3 Harelbeke single-day cycling race. It was held on 23 March over a distance of and was the sixth race of the
2012 UCI World Tour
The 2012 UCI World Tour was the fourth edition of the ranking system launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 2009. The series started with the Tour Down Under's opening stage on 17 January, and consisted of 14 stage races, 14 one-da ...
season. E3 Harelbeke was held as a
UCI World Tour event for the first time, after previously being held as a
1.HC The UCI 1.HC and UCI 2.HC are the second tier classification of road cycling races by the UCI, after the UCI World Tour (or its predecessor, the UCI ProTour). The races are part of the various UCI Continental Circuits. The 1.HC events are one-day ...
race on the
UCI Europe Tour. 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.
In a mass sprint finish, the race was won by rider
Tom Boonen, 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. Boonen finished ahead of 's
Óscar Freire and 's
Bernhard Eisel, who completed the podium.
Teams
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, and as such, formed the event's 25-team peloton.
The 25 teams that competed in the race were:
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Results
References
External links
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{{2012 UCI World Tour
E3 Harelbeke
E3 Harelbeke
E3 Harelbeke