Coming straight after the Omloop Het Niewsblad, the Kuurne – Bruxelles – Kuurne gives the Cobbled Stars for the PT peleton another shot at glory in Belgium. However, with less cobbled sections, the last of which comes with a quarter of the race still to go. Could one of the fast men pick up the win on what has been historically a race for a Northern Classics rider?

	Cob	Sp	Acc
Bewley	83	83	83
Burghardt	83	68	74
Summerhill	83	70	73
Blythe	82	76	73
Kamyshev	82	66	58
Senechal	82	69	74
Van Avermaet	82	78	78
Vanspeybrouck	82	67	68
Vanbilsen	80	72	71
Vanmarcke	80	70	72

You could take that list of favourites directly from the Omloop Het Niewsblad preview. Sam Bewley, fresh from his victory in Ghent, will be the bookie’s favourite to take the double, Marcus Burghardt and Greg van Avermaet, will be looking for revenge after having to settle for a podium on the day. Danny Summerhill, who was disappointing in Omloop, will be looking to make up for his ride to Ghent, and the same can be said for Adam Blythe, who was also unable to follow the moves of the favourites.

Despite missing out on a podium, Florian Senechel rode with a high level of credibility and will no doubt give his Pendleton’s team some confidence of a repeat performance. Sep Vanmarcke ended the race strongly and left questions of where he would have finished if he had followed the moves, and the same can be said for the likes of Stijn Vandenbergh and Kenneth Vanbilsen.

	Sp	Acc	Cob
Cavendish	83	81	70
Kennaugh	82	81	58
Kristoff	81	79	78
Meyer	80	76	63
Van Asbroeck	80	78	74
Havik	79	76	75
Farrar	79	77	71
Saber	79	77	75
Peeters	79	77	68
Stallaert	79	76	77
Rowe	79	80	75
Korzh	78	80	62
Kreder	78	80	66
Dakterris	77	77	72
Stepniak	77	77	66

As mentioned, the low number of cobbled sections could give the peleton’s sprinters a chance of hanging on and being able to contest the sprint at the end. Many managers appear to think the same, and the big names are here in anticipation of that scenario.

Mark Cavendish, Peter Kennaugh and Cameron Meyer are all stand-out names, but I wouldn’t go ruling out Lahcen Saber, Joeri Stallaert and Luke Rowe, as they all have the Cobbled skills to come into the finish with a bit more freshness.

Elsewhere, Tyler Farrar, Kevin Peeters, Pavel Korzh and Michel Kreder are just a handful that could cause a shock if they get their positioning correctly.

2015**	Pieter Vanspeybrouck	TeamBpost
2012	Jens Renders	Tyskie
2011	Pieter Vanspeybrouck	Team IKEA-Bianchi
2010	Leif Hoste	NVidia Intel
2009	Tom Boonen	Warner Brothers
2008	Leif Hoste	Wiesenhof

** As the Omloop Het Volk