200 km, 24 cobbled sectors and 182 riders ready to rumble. Will Summerhill live up to his favourite role or will there be a more surprising winner? Soon we’ll have the answer to all our questions!
The riders are ready to start the 2020 Omloop! Bakari immediately at the front, is he planning an early break?
The riders haven’t even left Ghent and a breakaway of 18 riders has gone away! Their names? Beullens, Vahtra, Gladysh, Bol, Konychev, Jallays, Pons, Thill, Stenersen, Verschaeve, Svab, Groselj, Goncalves, Brockhoff, Wouters, Affini, Nych and Philipsen.
8 more riders trying to join them now; Albanese, Sureda, Burke, Nieuwenhuis, Dekker, Reckweg, Park and Acosta.
After 30 km we find the first of 24 cobbled sectors. Verwilst of Lierse setting the pace in the peloton and making sure the difference is only 2’. The group of eight is still in between the peloton and the 16 leaders.
Et voila. With 160 km to go we have a leading group of 26 riders! The peloton is only 2’ behind, the favourite’s teams definitely do not trust this situation.
With 70 km done and 130 to go we find a few cobbled sections close together. Four riders are dropped in the leading group, we can say goodbye to Sureda, Burke, Albanese and Verschaeve.
Acosta gets dropped 10 km further down the road, and is immediately swallowed by the peloton being only 1’ behind the leading group. Van Aert now deciding the pace with the peloton only having 100 riders left, while there is still 120 km to go! One of the names that has been dropped in the peloton is Bakari.
110 km to go and the leaders are already reeled back in by the peloton. Van Aert did a terrific job, so did the other domestiques helping him; Wallays and Palyi.
We’re just over halfway course when van den Berg decides to attack for Farfetch Pro Cycling! Moroccan champion Saber sees this as a perfect opportunity to anticipate on what will come, while Minion Lindeman is trying to join the duo as well!
The Dutch Minion couldn’t reach the two leaders! On the 8th cobbled section of the day with 90 km to go he gets the company of Menten and Domene, who are also on a mission to reach the head of the race! Radio Tour just confirmed that Van der Haar and Jacobs are trying to do the same thing and just attacked in the peloton!
So far Menten is the only one to reach the two leaders! He is discussing something in Dutch with teammate van den Berg, Saber has no clue what is happening. Behind them the first three riders are Van der Haar, Domene and Lindeman! Peloton at 3’30”!
Van der Haar joins the leaders on the 10th cobbled section of the day! With 75 km to go the peloton follows at 3’15”, Lindeman and Domene are the only riders between the leaders and the peloton.
While those two are reeled back in by the peloton, Nepomnyachsniy and Young now trying to close the 1’45” gap on the four leaders with 65km to go!
Nepomnyachsniy has overestimated himself and immediately gets dropped by Young, who’s now going solo. Marcos is doing his duties as a domestique for his leader, Zepuntke, and top favourite Summerhill is also present at the front of the peloton.
Bad luck for Menten! He has a puncture at the same time Young closes the 1’30” gap there was between him and the leaders in the race! What a performance from the Desigual rider!
van den Berg going solo with 55 km to go! The Dutchman feels the peloton coming closer and goes all in on an uphill cobbled section! Young immediately gets dropped again.
The peloton is thinning out and only contains around 50 more riders. Some interesting names are being dropped, including Kump, Havik and Corwin.
In the front of the peloton Marcos is still doing a great job, almost catching Young. At the back of the peloton however, several interesting names have to let go; Kulppi, Keukeleire and Thwaites. 35 riders left in the peloton now, 47 km to go!
At the end of the 16th cobbled section of the day the peloton has caught back everyone but van den Berg, who is still a minute in front! The peloton has already been reduced to 26 riders, with no big names dropping so far!
Now the 26 riders get broken in two groups, the first group consisting of 15 riders and the second one of 11! The most important riders who are not in the first group are Saber, Richardson, Chatarunga, Machado, Insausti and Orue!
35 km to go for van den Berg, who only has to conquer five more cobbled sections after this one! The group of 15 is 1’15” behind, then 45” for another group of 28 riders.
There he goes! On the next uphill cobbled section, American champion Summerhill decides it is time to go and look for van den Berg!
He finds him on the 22nd cobbled section of the day and has absolutely no mercy and flies by! Summerhill solo with 29 km to go, the lead is already a minute on the 17 pursuers!
“Godverdomme!” – We hear Vanbilsen yell as he has to wait for another wheel because of a puncture on the penultimate cobbled section of the day, with only 25 km to go! The group of 14 in front of him is now getting closer to van den Berg, but Summerhill is extending his lead!
The Belgian is having none of it and passes Palyi who was the longest surviving domestique and just got dropped by the 13 riders in front of him. van den Berg is still 30” ahead of that group, while Summerhill enters the last 20 km with a lead of 2’30” as there is no cooperation behind him!
The American has no puncture on the last cobbled section of the day and starts the last 18 km with 2’30” on the chasers.
van den Berg survives the last cobbled section and is able to stay in the first group behind the sole leader. In this group we also find his teammate Salzmann, the other 13 names are Vanmarcke, Trentin, Breen, Zhupa, Zepuntke, Bush, Daniel, Vanbilsen, Ferreira, Moulingui, Van der Haar, Kristoff and Havik, who came back from a lost position.
Summerhill enters the last 5 km, with 3’15” on the group of 15. Even a puncture won’t be able to stop him winning the Omloop 2020!
Breen would make his manager happy with a second place, and decides to attack at 4.5 km from the finish line! Bush trying to follow him!
This guy doesn’t care what’s happening behind him though. The number 1 of today’s race finishes in the first place, congratulations to Andorra Cycling Project!
The same two riders still trying to grab the other podium places at 2 km from the finish line, while Zhupa does the work in order to get back to them! Four riders already seem to be dropped there, those are Havik, Van der Haar, van den Berg and teammate Salzmann.
Zhupa is tired of doing the work and stops riding, allowing Havik to come back and sprint! The podium places are gone though, as Breen finishes second ahead of Bush, who tried to shove him off the road!
Daniel wins the sprint for the fourth place against Trentin and Vanbilsen. The rest of the top 10 places go to Havik, Vanmarcke, Kristoff and the German Zepuntke, who finishes in the same spot as last year.
