It was held on 31 March 2013 over a distance of 256 kilometres (159.1 miles) from Bruges to Oudenaarde,[2] and was the eighth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season.

[4] Second place went to Peter Sagan of the Cannondale team, while third place went to Lotto–Belisol's Jürgen Roelandts; both of those riders had been in a group with Cancellara before his move, and eventually finished nearly one-and-a-half minutes behind Cancellara.

Originally, race organisers had been planning to have the eighteen ProTeams invited to the race, with seven other squads given wildcard places, and as such, would have formed the event's 25-team peloton.

Team Katusha subsequently regained their ProTour status after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

[6][7] Rather than removing one team from the race to accommodate Team Katusha, race organisers sought approval from the Union Cycliste Internationale to invite 26 teams of 8 riders, and a maximum peloton of 208 riders; this proposal was granted prior to the race.