Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) continued his fantastic run of form after winning the Tour of Flanders on Sunday.
The Norwegian rider beat breakaway companion Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) in a sprint for the line after the duo had successfully held off a counter-attack from Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC).
A quintet of riders went clear 20 kilometres into the race: Jesse Sergent (Trek), Damien Gaudin (AG2R), Ralf Matzka (Bora), Matthew Brammeier (MTN-Qhubeka) and Dylan Groenewegen (Roompot).
Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto-Soudal) and Marco Frapporti (Androni) were able to bridge across to the leading group shortly after Brammeier had won his body weight in beer, the prize for coming first in the day's bonus sprint.
The break were finally caught on the second ascent of Oude Kwaremont as the peloton ramped up the tempo.
On the climb of the Taaienberg, the main contenders began to flex their muscles, and attacks from Terpstra and Van Avermaet got the racing going in earnest.
As the race entered the third and final loop near Oudenaarde, a dramatically-reduced group of 26 riders remained at the front of the race. Shortly afterwards, Terpstra and Kristoff made their move.
Although the gap remained locked at around 15 seconds, Sky, Giant-Alppecin, Lotto-Soudal and BMC were all unable to reel in the determined pair, and the rest of the field was left to race for third place.
Terpstra sat and forced Kristoff to the front, but the 27-year-old held his nerve to become the Tour of Flanders' first ever Norwegian champion.
"I'm really happy to win, it's a really good feeling," he said. "My family is here today, and it was a big dream and my big goal this season and I managed to do it.
"At the end, I came with Niki, and he didn't really want to work with me, but I understand that. In the end I could still beat him."