An interesting constellation with Delvaux probably lining up with two potential race favorites: Breen and Van der Haar amongst those, who combine climbing skills and cobbles in the best possible way. Ferreira, Kluge, Kulppi or Zhupa as other contenders, who at least ain't much worse on hills than Breen/VdH and less strong cobblers like Naesen or Thymides may actually hope for an upsetting result with the hills playing into their cards here.



The break of the day is quickly formed, as six riders went clear early into the race, establishing a 3-minutes gap soon:

Yzeiraj
Savickas
Aaltio
Mancuso
Quintero
Mestric



The gap would peak at six minutes before the peloton would start to chase halfway through the race: Cerveceria, Delvaux and Rothaus as those teams sharing the work in the pursuit of the early break and the gap is down to 3 minutes with now 68km remaining.

Quintero with a moment of shock in the leading group, as he punctured on the uphill cobbles sector 'Michaelgate' in the heart of Lincoln. He's quickly re-joining the escaping group though. The same would happen to Aaltio later on, but just like Quintero, he's back in the leading group soon after the puncture!



31km to go now and the breakaway is just 59 seconds ahead with the pace in the pack being raised once again. Some first major splits in the bunch now, as only 31 riders built a first main group with another 72 riders building a second peloton:

McLay
Keukeleire
Vangenechten as the most notable names on the wrong side of the split!

At the front of the peloton, a group of 15 riders opens up a small gap on the other 16 riders - with Drucker going for a high pace now:

Drucker
Kulppi
Kluge
Cominelli
Jacobs
Ferreira, Hacecky, Halvorsen, Vandenbergh
Breen, Van der Haar, Eriksson, Grellier
Zhupa
Cancellara



This group with Drucker/Kluge/Breen catches up to the early break with 26km to go, making it a 21-men-group now..

The chasing group (12 riders now) ain't too far behind though, with Gatto, Grand and Hugentobler pulling the strings hard in order to close the gap! Also Breschel, Naesen or Verbist as part of this group, that is 45 seconds behind the big leading group.



And the group would indeed join the leading group a few moments later and just when it happened, we see the next attack at the front:

Kluge goes clear with now 23km (and two laps) to go!



Kluge opened up a notable gap quickly and he's 59 seconds ahead of the chasing group with now 16km to go:

Kulppi leading the chase at this point, where 25 riders are still part of the group! No one tried to follow Kluge on first hand, instead they are trying to work together and close the gap on the final lap then.

Most notable names being dropped at this point of the race:

Machado could not stay with the first group, he's a minute in arrears!

Taubel, Gatto
Keukeleire
Vangenechten are in the same group with Machado..



11km to the finish, a trio tries to go clear from the chasing group right after the penultimate cobbles sector:

Kluge still leading solo..

Zhupa
Kulppi
Drucker at 1.11

11 riders in the first chasing group now:

Grand
Breen, De Bondt, Van der Haar
Ferreira, Vandenbergh
Jacobs
Oba, Naesen
Matsumoto
Breschel



9km to the finish and Kluge holds on to a 58 seconds gap on the new chasing trio!

10 seconds further behind, the chasing group went into pieces again: De Bondt/Breen, Ferreira/Vandenbergh, Grand, Jacobs building a 6-men-group!

Van der Haar struggles to follow, he's 26 seconds in arrears..

..another group with Naesen, Oba and Breschel further 20 seconds.. a group with Cancellara/Cominelli/Machado another 31 seconds behind!



De Bondt with some outstanding work for Breen, as he caught group Drucker with this pacing at the front of the chasing group! Just 2.4km to go now and with the trio being caught and De Bondt still doing the pace, also Kluge lost time: he's now just 22 seconds ahead with the finish approaching!

Also Van der Haar managed to re-join the group, that is at 10 riders now:

De Bondt, Vandenbergh (working for their captains), Ferreira, Breen, Drucker, Zhupa, Kulppi, Jacobs, Grand, Van der Haar



Kluge enters the final kilometre with a 16 seconds advantage and he will soon enter the final short cobbles climb up "Michaelsgate"!



Drucker has now taken the leading position in the chasing group!

Breen and Van der Haar a few metres behind then..

Vandenbergh ahead of De Bondt, Zhupa, Ferreira, Kulppi and Jacobs/Grand as those at the back of the group..



The final 400metres, the final climb!

Drucker launched his sprint from a great position and he's catching up to Kluge with the superior speed now!

Breen and Van der Haar already a few seconds behind, but entering the final climb ahead of the others in the group..



Drucker easily went past Kluge, who can't counter his acceleration!

Breen has not yet managed to do the same, but he's catching up to Kluge as well now.. Van der Haar ahead of Zhupa, Ferreira and an exhausted Vandenbergh..

Kulppi, Jacobs and Grand fighting for the remaining Top-10 placements..



Drucker takes the win though and eventually, with quite a comfortable gap on the others! He managed to launch his strong sprint from a great position and even though his first attempt to go clear from the other contenders did not stick until the end, he kept cool to wait for the crucial final kilometre. Well played.



22 seconds later, Kluge narrowly held off Breen, who completes the podium! Kluge's attack looked promising for quite a while and while it's unlucky to get caught inside the final 300metres of the race, he still can be pleased with a runner-up result eventually. Breen might have hoped for more, but a podium ain't too bad afterall..



Zhupa finishes 4th ahead of Ferreira and Van der Haar, who adds further points for Delvaux that way. Good results for all of those riders inside the Top-6 (from a neutral point of view). Van der Haar with a nice effort to re-join the group after struggling soon after the penultimate cobbles sector!



35 seconds down on the winner, Jacobs crosses the line as a solid 7th..

Kulppi, Grand and Vandenbergh complete the Top-10! A nice team result for Rothaus with two in the Top-10, even though Ferreira did not shine as 5th on the day (still a decent result)..

De Bondt is rewarded with a nice 11th place after the hard work he did in the final lap!



Naesen comes in solo, finishing a decent 12th eventually..

Yzeiraj the strongest breakaway rider as 13th, finishing ahead of Breschel and Cominelli, who rounds up the Top-15 ahead of Mestric, Quintero, Matsumoto, Oba and Hugentobler.. Breschel can't be happy with this result, even though he did better than Machado (24th) or Vangenechten (26th). Our dark horse tip Thymides finished a quiet 33rd eventually. All riders finished within the time limit.

Final Results

1	Jempy Drucker	Campari - Super Dry	3h56'46
2	Roger Kluge	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	+ 22
3	Vegard Breen	Delvaux	s.t.
4	Eugert Zhupa	Swisslion Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Ricardo Ferreira	Rothaus - Aegon	s.t.
6	Lars Van der Haar	Delvaux	s.t.
7	Pieter Jacobs	GCN ProTeam	+ 35
8	Olli Kulppi	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
9	Arnaud Grand	Sauber Petronas Racing	s.t.
10	Stijn Vandenbergh	Rothaus - Aegon	+ 57
11	Dries De Bondt	Delvaux	+ 1'14
12	Oliver Naesen	Andorra Project - InGamba	+ 2'30
13	Marildo Yzeiraj	Adastra - Argon 18	+ 2'59
14	Matti Breschel	Compal-Merida	s.t.
15	Cristian Cominelli	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	s.t.
16	Matija Mestric	Swisslion Cycling Team	+ 3'26
17	Carlos Quintero	Oberfranken	+ 3'42
18	Yosukue Matsumoto	Campari - Super Dry	s.t.
19	Masatoshi Oba	Andorra Project - InGamba	s.t.
20	Gregory Hugentobler	Sauber Petronas Racing	+ 3'56
21	Zydrunas Savickas	DK Zalgiris	+ 4'04
22	Julien Taramarcaz	Sauber Petronas Racing	s.t.
23	Jens Keukeleire	GCN ProTeam	+ 4'16
24	Marc Machado	ENI-MOL	s.t.
25	Csaba Palyi	Banco de Bogota	s.t.
26	Jonas Vangenechten	Telia-Brussels Airlines	s.t.
27	Nathan Haas	BNZ Cycling Team	+ 4'33
28	Tesfay Abraha	Oberfranken	s.t.
29	Risto Aaltio	Valio - DeLaval	+ 4'45
30	Albert Kireva	Andorra Project - InGamba	s.t.
31	Fabian Cancellara	Sauber Petronas Racing	s.t.
32	Linus Dahlberg	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
33	Constantinos Thymides	Swisslion Cycling Team	s.t.
34	Christoph Taubel	Sauber Petronas Racing	s.t.
35	Kevin Eeckhout	Andorra Project - InGamba	s.t.
36	Ermin Van Wyk	Oberfranken	s.t.
37	Boy Van Poppel	Oberfranken	s.t.
38	Salvatore Mancuso	ENI-MOL	+ 5'09
39	Dan McLay	GCN ProTeam	s.t.
40	Evert Verbist	Delvaux	+ 5'27
41	Max Losch	Banco de Bogota	s.t.
42	Mateo Frankovic	Swisslion Cycling Team	s.t.
43	Rui Oliveira	Swisslion Cycling Team	s.t.
44	Gediminas Kaupas	DK Zalgiris	s.t.
45	Lukas Meiler	Campari - Super Dry	s.t.
46	Romain Hardy	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
47	Miha Poljanec	Swisslion Cycling Team	s.t.
48	Kari Brynjolfsson	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
49	Ralf Matzka	BNZ Cycling Team	+ 5'58
50	Fabien Grellier	Delvaux	s.t.
51	Tom Meeusen	Telia-Brussels Airlines	s.t.
52	Oumaru Minoungou	GCN ProTeam	s.t.
53	Owain Doull	Sauber Petronas Racing	+ 6'08
54	Vojtech Hacecký	Rothaus - Aegon	+ 6'17
55	Tom Thill	Compal-Merida	+ 7'18
56	Lucas Eriksson	Delvaux	s.t.
57	Tom Veelers	Sauber Petronas Racing	s.t.
58	Sandis Eislers	Oberfranken	s.t.
59	Stefan Hristov	Adastra - Argon 18	s.t.
60	Eduardo Colon	Campari - Super Dry	+ 7'37
61	Vincenzo Albanese	Campari - Super Dry	+ 7'55
62	Sonny Colbrelli	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	s.t.
63	Oscar Gatto	Sauber Petronas Racing	s.t.
64	Krisztian Lovassy	ENI-MOL	s.t.
65	Stanislav Zaraliev	Adastra - Argon 18	+ 8'10
66	Ole Haavardsholm	Compal-Merida	+ 8'18
67	Nino Schurter	Compal-Merida	s.t.
68	Filippo Rocchetti	Campari - Super Dry	+ 8'26
69	Patrik Tybor	Compal-Merida	s.t.
70	Maxim Belkov	Adastra - Argon 18	s.t.
71	Daniel Ruiz	ENI-MOL	s.t.
72	Richard Laningo Laizer	Andorra Project - InGamba	s.t.
73	Nick Bain	Rothaus - Aegon	+ 8'49
74	Kristoffer Halvorsen	Rothaus - Aegon	s.t.
75	Sasu Helme	Valio - DeLaval	+ 9'49
76	David Veilleux	Telia-Brussels Airlines	s.t.
77	Karol Andrzej Domagalski	Compal-Merida	s.t.
78	Lawson Craddock	Banco de Bogota	s.t.
79	Thomas Degand	Adastra - Argon 18	s.t.
80	Jonas Gregaard	ENI-MOL	s.t.
81	Vladimiras Kokorevas	DK Zalgiris	s.t.
82	Airidas Videika	DK Zalgiris	s.t.
83	Martins Blums	DK Zalgiris	+ 10'18
84	Adrian Richeze	Banco de Bogota	s.t.
85	Martin Velits	Compal-Merida	s.t.
86	Jelle Wallays	Banco de Bogota	s.t.
87	Jovan Zekavica	Swisslion Cycling Team	s.t.
88	Leszek Plucinski	Banco de Bogota	s.t.
89	Dale Appleby	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
90	Omer Goldstein	Andorra Project - InGamba	s.t.
91	Dmitri Medvedev	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
92	Masaki Yamamoto	Campari - Super Dry	+ 10'48
93	Michael Thomson	GCN ProTeam	s.t.
94	Narankhuu Baterdene	BNZ Cycling Team	+ 11'00
95	Anders Ekh Dahlberg	Telia-Brussels Airlines	s.t.
96	Simone Petilli	Campari - Super Dry	s.t.
97	Chris Opie	GCN ProTeam	s.t.
98	Maciej Bodnar	Rothaus - Aegon	s.t.
99	Jose Luis Cano	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	s.t.
100	Salvador Moreno Hernandez	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
101	Steve Fisher	Equinor Pro Cycling	s.t.
102	Piotr Brozyna	Delvaux	s.t.
103	Sandor Szalontay	ENI-MOL	s.t.
104	Aviv Yechezkel	Valio - DeLaval	s.t.
105	Nick Reddish	BNZ Cycling Team	s.t.
106	Keagan Girdlestone	DK Zalgiris	+ 11'39
107	Mujtaba Hussein	GCN ProTeam	s.t.
108	James Curry	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
109	Erdenebayar Daspuntsag	BNZ Cycling Team	s.t.
110	Jordi Warlop	Equinor Pro Cycling	s.t.
111	Steven Burke	GCN ProTeam	s.t.
112	Marek Canecky	Compal-Merida	s.t.
113	Valentin Stoenchev	Adastra - Argon 18	s.t.
114	Alvaro Hodeg	Delvaux	+ 12'02
115	Jorge Abreu	Banco de Bogota	+ 12'09
116	Adria Urcelay	Andorra Project - InGamba	+ 12'58
117	Bryan Salas	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	s.t.
118	Suleiman Kangangi	Equinor Pro Cycling	+ 13'04
119	Allan Morales	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	+ 13'11
120	Shaun Lewis	Eddie Stobart	s.t.
121	Aleksi Hänninen	Valio - DeLaval	+ 13'18
122	Kristof Vandewalle	Telia-Brussels Airlines	+ 13'50
123	Michael Vanderaerden	Adastra - Argon 18	s.t.
124	Johan Fredrik Ziesler	Telia-Brussels Airlines	+ 14'17
125	Steele Von Hoff	BNZ Cycling Team	+ 14'45
126	Kristoffer Skjerping	ENI-MOL	+ 14'51
127	Kyeng Ho Min	DK Zalgiris	s.t.
128	Izidor Penko	Swisslion Cycling Team	+ 15'06
129	Luke Mudgway	BNZ Cycling Team	s.t.
130	Miguel Afonso	Andorra Project - InGamba	s.t.
131	Gorka Izagirre	DK Zalgiris	s.t.
132	Gasper Katrasnik	Equinor Pro Cycling	s.t.
133	Jake Keough	Oberfranken	s.t.
134	Alexey Vermeulen	Team Cerveceria Costa Rica	s.t.
135	Jordan Cheyne	Banco de Bogota	+ 15'47
136	Gert Joeaar	Eddie Stobart	+ 16'20
137	Michael Torckler	Telia-Brussels Airlines	+ 16'26
138	Anders Skaarseth	Equinor Pro Cycling	s.t.
139	Nikolay Mihaylov	Adastra - Argon 18	s.t.
140	Kiel Reijnen	Telia-Brussels Airlines	+ 17'49
141	Joonas Henttala	Valio - DeLaval	+ 18'12
142	Daniel Afoa	Equinor Pro Cycling	s.t.
143	Fabio Taborre	Equinor Pro Cycling	+ 18'27
144	Gökhan Hasta	Valio - DeLaval	+ 19'07
145	Miles Scotson	BNZ Cycling Team	+ 19'30
146	Maximilian Beyer	Oberfranken	+ 19'50
147	Dario Puccioni	Oberfranken	+ 21'10
148	Abel Kenyeres	ENI-MOL	+ 21'39
149	Alain Quispe	Equinor Pro Cycling	+ 21'45