The last cobbled classic of the season is here. Nvidia seem to be the big favorites to take this home with both Hoste and Franzoi in their team but Blythe and Vanspeybrouck are also very good cobble riders and they are going to be Nvidia biggest rivals today.
We had 9 riders in the day's breakaway but neither of them was a good cobble rider: Hoy, Stalder, Kelly, Aoyanagi, Boonratanathanakorn, Ratto, Euser, Passalacqua, Downing
The big favorites' teams, Nvidia, Ikea and 100% ME, kept a lot of riders at the front of the pack but they all let Lego chase after the breakaway in the early kilometers of the race
Later Ikea decided to help Lego and some of their riders started the relay
The escapes, lead by Passsalacqua, reached the first cobbled section with 95 kilometers before the finish
The pack with Ikea and Lego in front arrived there 4 minutes later
The second cobbled section of the day is quite long but only because there are actually 5 cobble sectors separated by a few kilometers of normal road
And there we saw the first puncture of the day. It was one of the escapes: Euser
In the pack the main chasers are Ikea, as Lego started losing men when the cobble arrived
The other escapes passed the cobbles without problems, but Euser seems to have lost the contact with them
Behind them one of the escapes one of the Vespa riders is in trouble and they whole team waited for him. It was Cappelle who had the puncture
But only after 5 kilometers he was brought back in the pack
At the front of the race Euser also managed to rejoin the breakaway group
Behind them Ikea are now helped by Nvidia in the chase and the gap between the escapes and the pack is only 2 minutes with 50 km left
Ten kilometers later the escapes reached a new cobbled section, but it doesn't look too good of them as they have only 1 minute left of their advantage
After they passed the cobbles Downing and Boonratanathanakorn attacked the others and got away
Only Hoy, Passalacqua and Ratto tried to came after them, while the others were caught by the pack
After the next cobbled section was passed the 3 chasers managed to join Downing and Boonratanathanakorn in front of the race
Behind them Vanspeybrouck made the first big attack of the day
Franzoi and Blythe were right behind him
As well as Ista
They soon caught the escapes and left them behind one by one
Vanspeybrouck and Ista were the first to end their acceleration and lost the contact for an while with Blythe and Franzoi
Blythe also looked like going to make a gap between him and Franzoi but it didn't happen after all
Right before the next cobbled section Vanspeybrouck joined them in front
Ista also came back in the leading group, right on the cobbled section
The pack lead by M&M is already almost 2 minutes behind the attackers there. It looks like they have lost the fight
In front Blythe clearly doesn't want the other 3 riders with him and he made an another attack
Ista and Franzoi responded to that immediately, unfortunately for him
Vanspeybrouck was the only one that didn't attack there but he maintain a constant pace and didn't lose too many time
Franzoi and Blythe again proved a little bit stronger than Ista and left the Belgian rider behind
Not a good move there from Ista as Vanspeybrouck also caught him and almost left him behind
Behind them we had an another bunch of attacks from the pack. The new attackers were: Bewley, Hoste, Kopp, Cappelle and Mertens
In front of the race Vanspeybrouck rejoined Blythe and Franzoi
Eventough he didn't manage to join the group at first, Ista wasn't far away at all
Neither were the new attackers, lead by Hoste
With 10 kilometers left Hoste, Mertens and Ista joined the leaders and brought the number of riders in the leading group up to 6
Kopp, Cappelle and Bewley were in the chasing group there, 25 seconds behind the leaders
With 9 kilometers before the finish Hoste made a serious acceleration
And it could be the decisive one as no one is able to come after him
Few moments later Bewley, Kopp and Cappelle joined the new chasing group. But can they all work together and bring Hoste back?
Certainly the working together part didn't work so Blythe and Vanspeybrouck tried an last attack. Franzoi immediately counter - attack them as it's his team - mate the one that they want to catch
Bewley also came after them but it could be too late for any of them now
Hoste is the first rider to reach the last cobbled section of the day
Blythe and Vanspeybrouck aren't far away behind him but can they catch him in the only 5 kilometers left from the race
Bewley in Franzoi are the next riders to hit that point of the race but they are more than 20 seconds behind Hoste
Almost one minute behind Hoste we have a group with Kopp, Cappelle, Mertens and Ista
With 3 kilometers to go Hoste still has a nice lead and the good news for is that his opponents are spread one by one on the road
Final kilometer for Hoste... this looks like a certain win for him
And Leif Hoste wins Halle - Ingooigem 2010!
Blythe looked really strong today but he gets only the second place
Vanspeybrouck was caught and passed by Bewley in the final kilometers. The M&M riders gets the last place on the podium today
Kopp and Cappelle caught Franzoi and even left him behind so it was between them for the 5 place today. Kopp got it in the end
Not a great day for Franzoi who was the big favorite at the start of day, but the good news is that his team - mate got the win
Mertens beat Ista in their fight for the 8th place
Vaitkus was the last rider in the top 10 and the third rider that M&M had placed there
