The first stage of this year's Tour of Northern Europe looks a lot like Fleche Wallone, both ending in the same place - the Mur de Huy.
Earlier this season, Cunego won the Belgian classic in front of Gesink and Spilak, but neither of them are riding here, which makes L.L. Sanchez (4th in FW) one of the big favorites. The Spaniard is not the only big puncheur present here though, the race's startlist including Bakelants, Van Garderen and S. Sanchez as well.
With 7 categorized climbs before the Mur de Huy, this stage will also give us a clear point of view of who could end up winning the King of the Mountain rankings at the end of the race.
A very early breakaway was formed in the first kilometers of the stage but they didn't stand a chance staying in front of the pack and they were caught at the top of the first climb. Summerhill took the summit, followed by Van Garderen and De Ketele, who was one of the early escapes
Soon after that the main breakaway of the day was born. It was made by 6 riders, including one of the best cobblers in the race, Festina's Frederik Nolf. The other 5 riders were: Merino Criado (Vesuvio), Van Houts (WB), Zrimsek (Lipton), Van Zandbeek (Lafarge) and Joseph (Pearl).
Even though today's climbs are very important for the final outcome of the polka dot jersey rankings, no one in the breakaway seemed really interested in fighting for the mountain points and it was Nolf who took the second summit of the day
Joseph took the third one, followed by Van Houts and Nolf. At that point Nolf and Van Houts had the same amount of points gained after 2 climbs
Merino Criado took the following summit, with Nolf again third, which gave the Belgian a small advantage over Van Houts
But the Warner Bros. rider took the next climb, with Nolf right behind him, which made things really tight
Merino Criado also joined the battle after becoming the first rider to win 2 summits, while both Nolf and Van Houts missed the podium at the top
The next summit and the last one for the escapes was taken by Joseph, who surprisingly managed to out score both Van Houts and Merino Criado. But Nolf was third there and took 2 points which will give him the polka dot jersey at the end of the day
A few kilometers later the big things started to happen in the pack. With 25 km to go, Flugel attacked and he was closely followed by Cancellara, Ballan and Bakelants, with many other riders making their moves as well.
The breakaway was soon history even though when the escapes were caught by the new attackers, only Van Zandbeek and Zrimsek were dropped from the leading group.
With 10 kilometers before the finish we had a giant group of 22 riders in front of the pack. The group contained: Cancellara (Carmeuse), Devolder (Philips), Boom (Auber), L.L.Sanchez (Energie), Kiserlovski (Starbucks), S. Sanchez, Nolf (Festina), Fiedler (Nespresso), Grivko (B&O), Posthuna (JW), Vanendert (Domina), Joseph, Bakelants (Pearl), Gautier (Lafarge), Albert, Giaux, Flugel (Ikea), Van Garderen (Wikipedia), Boonen, Van Houts (WB), Ballan (SE) and Merino Criado (Vesuvio)
A few favorites for the cobbled stage were missing from the group such as Nuyens, Burghardt or Vanspreybrouck, but all of them had at least one team - mate there, which means that they are riding here only as domestiques.
There were no other moves in the leading group for the next five kilometers. But as soon as he saw the 5 km banner, Cancellara attacked once again
He got a nice gap but the Swiss found himself in trouble as soon as the first slopes of the Mur de Huy were reached, with 3 kilometers to go
A few moments later he was brought back in the group, which led to S. Sanchez making his move, closely followed by Devolder and Bakelants, with Van Garderen and L.L. Sanchez also preparing something
S. Sanchez, Devolder and Bakelants managed to stretch the group and got a gap, with the Festina rider looking to be the strongest of the three.
Devolder was the first to let go and only Bakelants was actually able to join Sanchez in the lead. But they both also had to stop accelerating
With the 2 slowing down, a few riders were able to close down the gap and even catch them - Van Garderen and Vanendert looking very strong now, while Devolder, L.L. Sanchez, Grivko and Boom were finding their way to the lead group
With 1 kilometer to go, we had 4 riders in front sprinting for the stage win, which was also going to give them the yellow and the green jerseys
Sanchez stopped accelerating a few moments earlier only to recover for one last effort as he looks to be by far the strongest in the final kilometer
And the Olympic Champion takes it in front of Van Garderen and Bakelants, with Vanendert missing the podium in the last meters of the stage
Boom was also looking very strong in the final kilometer, but he finished only 5th, 19 seconds behind Sanchez. Luis Leon, Devolder and Grivko were also there with the Dutch man
Cancellara came at 1'44, leading an important group, which included riders such as Posthuma, Ballan and Boonen
On paper, neither of today's four performers are going to be able to get a decent result in the cobbled stage, which puts Boom and Devolder in a very good position, in front of Cancellara, Ballan and Boonen, only the Swiss being able to gain back some of the time lost in tomorrow's time - trial
