"When I got to the final corner," Cavendish said. "I knew we'd win."
He had to open his sprint "early" at 270 metres away from the line in Kuurne. Hutarovich stayed close to him, but was unable to come around.
Kenny Van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM) finished in third, a few bike lengths back.
Several groups tried to prevent the likely sprint finish, but all were unsuccessful. Team Sky, led by Juan Antonio Flecha, caught the last group at five kilometres remaining in the 198 kilometre race in Flanders.
"It's incredible, I don't know if I can take credit," Cavendish told Belgian TV. "The team worked the whole day for me. The break went, when we got it back, they started riding immediately and just stayed there to the finish. I'm so proud."
His Sky team worked all day in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne by also fielding Flecha and Mathew Hayman in a key escape group with Tom Boonen (OmegaPharma-Quick Step). The race comes a day after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and is often referred to as the revenge race. Yesterday, both Flecha and Boonen lost to Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Barracuda) from a three-man escape. Hayman was also in the escape, prior to an attack by Vanmarcke.
ResultKuurne-Brussels-Kuurne 2012, 198km
1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky
2. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-BigMat
3. Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM
4. Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ-BigMat
5. Alexander Serebryakov (Rus) Team Type 1
6. Tom Veelers (Ned) Project 1t4i
7. Sebastien Chavanel (Fra) Europcar
8. Stefan Van Dijck (Ned) Accent Jobs-Willems Verandas
9. Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha
10. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol all same time
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