Right at the start a big group featuring names such as Hägg, Vandenbergh, Van Keirsbulck and Vansummeren gets away and has more than 1'30 before the peloton realize the danger.

The first intermediate is won by Van Keirsbulck ahead of Van Hecke and Klemme.
After having been down to just over half a minute the gap is now growing again to more than 1'30.

Seems like this is indeed the group for the early break:
Vliegen, Hägg, Ghyselinck, Broeckx, García, Vansummeren, Delfosse, D.Fernández, Vandenbergh, Van Keirsbulck, Klemme, Van Hecke, Scheirlinckx and Tatarinov.

The peloton keeps up the hard pace behind dropping a group of 33 early on and making the breakers keep up their relentless attacking waves.

With 100 km to go it's Ghyselinck, Van Hecke, Van Keirsbulck, Hägg, Klemme, Fernández and García with a 1'20 gap.
García and Fernández cracks on the first cobbled section leaving a group of 5 at the front.
With 75 km to go this is the situation:

50 km to go:


With 30 km to go García is caught and the front group, now also containing Fernández, has 2'01 to the peloton.
That being said Ghyselinck gets a puncture moments later and is dropped with the cobbles being too much for Klemme and Fernández as well.
20 km to go:


With 18 km to go Van Avermaet decides that it's time for the big names to start racing.

It pulls things together as he bridges the gap to Van Keirsbulck and Hägg while also making the peloton up its pace.

Full of optimism Verboven attacks with 14 km to go hoping that Stannard is starting to run low on energy.

He does get a small gap, but GVA is too far ahead it seems. Especially since Pedersen and Leukemans both refuse to help Verboven chase.

A deserved win for BMC after a bold move.

Verboven leads the chasers also into the final km.

Leukemans wheelsucks his way to a 2nd place while Rudy is awarded for his work with the final spot on the podium.


Navardauskas wins the sprint in the main group with almost all his teammates in the top 20.