Today's the day, a flat 100 km stage that will almost certainly end in a sprint, Tom has a slender 4 second advantage over Van Rensburg. Our objective is simple, keep yellow.
Favourites
Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg, Remco Te Brake, Sondre Holst Enger
No-one tries to breakaway today which is good news for us. Tom sees the chance to take some bonus seconds and wins the first intermediate sprint. That increases his gap over Van Rensburg to 10 seconds!
However the second intermediate sprint doesn't go so well. Tom is beaten by the big sprinters, like Te Brake, Enger and co. Guys who have no chance of improving their GC spot or taking the green jersey from Van Rensburg. Tom is absolutely furious. It could cost him the GC yet. To steal yellow Van Rensburg now needs to finish in the top 2.
At the final sprint Boris is right on the wheel of Van Rensburg. But disaster strikes as he gets blocked, and loses his wheel. Who's it going to be?
Back after a few days away for Easter. Here's a quick report from Le Samyn. Forgot screenshots, which is just as well because we had a shocker today!
Le Samyn
Today was a day when the team was brought back down to earth, the same team as we had for Omloop and K-B-K. With a strong field. Quinziato, Stannard and Amorison standing out as the main favourites.
The race came down to an 8-man group who simply rode away on the last cobbled section. Amorison cakewalks the sprint, he's on super form at the minute.
So that brings the curtain down on February for the team, a pretty successful month for the team, winning 2 stages and taking 2nd overall in the Tour of South Africa, something we weren't even expecting so early on!
Elsewhere Tom Boonen looks like he's going to be the man to beat in the Spring Classics after impressive wins in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
A pretty busy month for us, with plenty of one day racing in Belgium, and a couple of short stage races. Hopefully we can have another decent month!
Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen - 02/03 - 04/03 Vlaamse Pijl - 03/03 GP van Drenthe - 09/03 Kattekoers - 11/03 Nokere Koerse - 14/03 Handzame Classic - 16/03 Dwars door Vlaanderen - 21/03 GP da Costa Azul - 22/03 - 25/03 Driedaagse van De Panne - 27/03 - 30/03 GP van Het Mergelland - 31/03
Leleu is both a poor climber and poor time triallist, but is handy on the cobbles, being over 3 minutes down already he's on the attack today, making the 12-man break, with Louder (UHC), Obst (NSP), Kirsipuu (Champion System), Ljungblad (Differdange), Delfosse (Lanbouwkrediet), Serry (Topsport), Bagdonas (An Post), McCarty (Spidertech), Ista (Accent Jobs), Bouyer (Europcar) and Vangheel (Colba)
With the peloton constantly splitting then coming back together it's important to be well positioned at the front of the peloton, and we do just that. 60 to go and the break has 4 minutes still.
20 to go and the break's well in sight, the favourites start to attack, Jerome (Europcar) being the first and getting a good little gap, Stannard (Sky) likes the look of it and jumps across himself.
@Sutty - Sadly yep, but we've got some smaller races this month where we hope to grab some results, these bigger races are mainly about experience this year!
A flat race that'll almost certainly end in a sprint, with a few lumps in the first half.
Favourites
Stefan Van Dijk, Denis Flahaut, Benjamin Giraud
Boris is to be our leader for the day, as he's our best sprinter.
With little real action to speak of we come straight to the finish where the peloton has split in the high winds, leaving a group of about 40 up front.
Under the red kite and Boris is going very well, currently in 3rd!
Denis Flahaut flew through the field in the last km to take the win, while Boris fades to 8th.
With 1 km to go he's still ahead, but the peloton is coming, will he hold on?
No! Hayden Roulston pips him.
Nearly a great win from us, but foiled at the last. As you will see from the stage results, it wasn't all about the best sprinters, it was about those who had the best positioning.
Stannard takes a super win in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, thrashing the rest of the field, our best rider on GC was Tom Stubbe in 24th over 5 minutes down.
Pan flat, if we have anything other than a bunch sprint I'll eat my hat. Boris is our leader for today.
Favourites
John Degenkolb, Tom Veelers, Michael Matthews
The break of the day is formed very quickly with our man Jerome Kerf, Dron of Wallonie and Dressler of Differdange up the road.
However the day was dominated by Cofidis' red army, with as many as 6 riders committed to chasing the breakaway, with 55 km still to go, they must have some confidence in their leader Duque today.
With the break reeled in and a sprint looking inevitable there are some riders who look keen on avoiding the sprint. None of them stick though so we're going to have that sprint!
Here comes the sprint, the Rabobank train is in full flight! We meanwhile are struggling and won't be up their in the sprint.
Michael Matthews completes the excellent lead out from his team mates to take a good win.
Result
1) Michael Matthews - Rabobank - 4h35'39
2) Nico Eeckhout - An Post - s.t.
3) Gert Steegmans - Omega Pharma - Quickstep - s.t.
4) Leonardo Duque - Cofidis - s.t.
5) Oscar Gatto - Farnese Vini - s.t.
6) Bobbie Traksel - Lanbouwkrediet - s.t.
7) Steven Caethoven - Accent Jobs - s.t.
8) Jake Keough - United Healthcare - s.t.
9) Stephane Poulhies - Saur Sojasun -s.t.
10) John Degenkolb - Argos - s.t.
It takes 50 km of racing before the break of the day is formed, we miss it sadly. Markus Fothen (NSP), Oroz (Euskaltel), Hupond (Argos), De Witte (Wallonie) and Vandaele (Colba) are your breakaway riders for today.
On the 3rd time over the cobbles we have more of the same high pace setting, the break is holding well at 2 and a half minutes still!
With 20 km or so to go and a decent gap still the break starts to attack each other, dropping De Witte and Vandaele. On the last cobbled section 10 km out the break has nearly 2 minutes of a gap, will they make it to the finish?
Schierlinckx opens a gap on the cobbles and by the time we're over the top he's away and hunting the remnants of the break solo. The 15 men behind becomes just 9 now, Antoine is still there though!
1 km to go and Schierlinckx flies past the breakaway, 500 metres back the 9 man group again split becoming just 5, are chasing hard to get back to Schierlinckx and the break, here's Antoine preparing his sprint on Roulston's wheel. He's guaranteed a top 10!
Flat with lots of cobbled sections in the beginning and the middle of the race, any damage caused on the cobbles will probably come back together. It's super windy today.
Favourites
Thomas Vaitkus, Tom Veelers, Nico Eeckhout
Very early on in the day the break is formed, Serry (Topsport) and Vanbeclaere (Colba) take 3 minutes very quickly and are later joined by 3 other riders.
The first cobbled section is very early on in the race so there are no real problems caused by Accent Jobs pedestrian pace on the front.
The second section is much longer and made a lot harder by the very strong headwind that big Bert Grabsch is driving the peloton in to. The breaks lead is coming down, now just 4 minutes with 85 km still to ride.
The peloton splits into many fragments over the top of that section, and a strong 5 man group sneaks away off the front, Stubbe's found himself in it with race favourites Cooke (Orica-Greenedge) and Gardeyn (Champion Systems) as well as Delfosse (Lanbouwkrediet) and Van Asbroeck (Topsport) all seem willing to contribute to this move, quickly gaining over a minute on the fractured peloton, but there's still 70 km of racing to be done.
With some of the big favourites out of the back of the now regrouped peloton Argos are looking to take advantage setting a heavy pace in the now crosswind.
Toms group has now caught up to the breakaway and they hit the last cobbled section with 2 and a half minutes advantage with 40 km of riding on the flat to follow, it probably won't be enough. Most of the flailing favourites managed to get back in on the last cobbled section.
With 20 km to go the breaks gap has gone back out to over 2 and a half minutes, suddenly they look as thought they might make it. Te Stroet (Jo Piels) couldn't hang on to the break and has dropped back.
Amazingly with 15 km left the break starts looking at each other and stops working, they're playing silly buggers and dashing any chance of victory they may have, so Stubbe attacks! Dragging Serry and Vanbeclaere with him. Sadly though the move is brought back with 7 km to race, looks like we're going to have that sprint.
3 km the peloton is strung right out in a fierce sidewind, Antoine is about 10 back, the way the race is strung out suggests it's not going to be about the best sprinter but the best positioning once again!
And it proves to be the case as Nikolas Maes takes a surprise win! Antoine comes in 7th
Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen - 02/03 - 04/03
GP van Drenthe - 09/03
GP da Costa Azul - 22/03 - 25/03
