Welcome to Flanders for the second monument of the season! Every cobbles rider of the PT is here and even some great ones from the PCT are joining them to get a great result (and steal some points from the PT) here! The legendary combination of cobbles and hills in the (in)famous hellingen (which seems to translate to something like “steepness”) makes it one of the most prestigious races in the cycling world.
It doesn’t take long and a break of 9 riders is established. Their chances today are slim, but at least they allow their teammates back in the peloton to refuse chasing. Those helping this way are Verwilst, Müller, Pickrell, Delco, Antonijevic, Budenieks, Kurianov, Moutsios and Sagiv.
When the break enters the first cobbled sectors the gap has stabilized at around 8 minutes. It’s still a long day though with a further 211 km to go.
The race hasn’t really started yet, but the first riders are already dropped and will have a really long day to get their teams some finishing points, just to probably miss the time limit in the end. They still have 193 km to think about this (and some of their life decisions in general).
Halfway through the race the break climbs the famous Bosberg. They have a lead of 5 minutes at the moment. Most riders dropped from the peloton made it back, but Asgreen and Buratti are 7 and 8 minutes behind the pack. Maybe they will join each other to half their suffering…
With 65 km to go Moutsios has to let his companions go in the Kattenberg climb. The peloton is still 2 minutes behind and still consists of 145 riders, but clearly attrition will soon catch up with the weaker riders and reduce the pack.
With 53 km to go the break has crumbled apart and only Kurianov and a bit behind him Müller are still out in front. In the peloton the first splits have occurred and been undone, but the likes of Owen, Vermeersch and the Evonik duo Ovsyannikov and Neilands were caught once and are still badly positioned.
With 40 km to go the break is finally over. Most of those favourites dropped earlier are now in the first group of 59, but Owen hasn’t learned from the earlier mishap and is in a chasing group once again.
What’s that? A group including Bohli, Stavrakakis, Kamyshev and most importantly Pedersen has fallen behind! Did we (and the radio) miss a puncture there or is the Dane already in trouble?
It’s probably been a puncture, but it took Pedersen some km to get back to the front group which has been heavily reduced to 35 riders.
With 26 km to go there have been the first attacks by second-tier favourites like Teunissen and Salzmann. There haven’t been gaps so far but the first group is down to 31 riders and many domestiques are already dropped, so the decisive stage of the race in on!
But once Senechal accelerates the group is soon further reduced. With 22 km to go Per, Gerts, Siric, Anderberg, Teunissen, Kasperkiewicz, Senechal and Altur are the leading riders with Boutopoulos just trying to keep their wheels.
The second group consists of Ovsyannikov, Pedersen, Rutsch, Jacobs, Spengler, Vermeersch and Polanc.
Both groups are back together when entering the Paterberg, although Vermeersch and Polanc seem to be dropped there.
Only 11 riders arrive at the Oude Kwaremont together after Ovsyannikov, Rutsch and Spengler have lost contact. Altur attacks at the foot of this last climb of the day!
And he gets a gap in the climb! His first chasers are Senechal, Per, Gerts, Anderberg and Teunissen.
Behind them Rutsch just loses contact at the end of the cobbled climb while Pedersen, Jacobs, Spengler and Siric are hoping the pace will go down again so they can rejoin the leaders. Ovsyannikov and Kasperkiewicz are clearly beaten and way behind.
With 12 km to go Altur still has 15’’ to the first five chasers. Rutsch is on his own another 40’’ behind, so it seems the win and the podium are out of reach for him and everyone behind him.
The leader enters the final cobbled sector with a gap of 22’’. Senechal leads the chase, but he also looks quite done.
Altur comes out of the sector solo, but the other chasers also felt Senechal won’t bring them back and are on the move now! It’s 7 km to go.
And the move led by Gerts brings him, Anderberg, Per and Teunissen back to the front. We have five leaders with 6 km to go. Will someone still have the courage and power to attack?
Not only are there no attacks, the pace also drops and brings a pretty spent Senechal back to the front. Even Rutsch, Pedersen, Jacobs and Spengler are closing in again. It’s only 3 km to go, but if the pace doesn’t get up again this could end in a huge upset for the leaders!
But they don’t seem to care too much and with 1.7 km to go the four chasers are back at the front as well! It will come down to a sprint today.
Per launches first under the red kite and there seems to be no reaction at all!
He has a solid lead with 500 m to go, but at least Gerts and Rutsch sprint as well now.
And Per wins the Ronde! He even celebrated way before the line.
Gerts finishes in a clear 2nd place.
Rutsch takes the final podium spot. He clearly profited most from the leaders looking at each other and dropping the pace, but he also had a really strong race! Altur beats Teunissen for 4th.
Senechal and Anderberg finish in 6th and 7th. Pedersen in 8th is a huge disappointment, but he just didn’t look good the entire day. Spengler and Jacobs complete the top 10.
Siric came in 11th on his own. Boutopoulos wins the sprint for 12th against Ovsyannikov, Polanc and Kasperkiewicz.
On a side note everyone makes the time limit in the end.
Congratulations to Per who wins his second monument after the 2022 Paris-Roubaix. Will he add this year’s Hell of the North to his tally as well?
[PTM] Ronde van Vlaanderen 
