Fourmies is the only one day race in September in Pro Tour. Even though each one of the nine laps has quite a steep ascent it looks to be a race made for sprinters. There are quite a lot of good sprinters participating but if we had to chose 3 of them those would be: Bennati, Hushovd and Vantomme.
There was quite a large breakaway group with 15 riders, some of them really good sprinters: Hegreberg, Trusov, Mondory, Pedersen, Deroo, Mouris, Marzano, Martin, Einsle, Van Aelbroeck, Hayman, Kallouette, Joly, Smukulis and Jacobs
La Gazzetta are the main chasers of the breakaway, being helped by Philips, Festina and Warner Brothers
Marzano is leading the breakaway group into the 7th lap, but with just 4 minutes advantage over the pack and with more than 60 km left this isn’t looking too good for them
With 30 kilometers before the finish a mixture of teams leading the pack brought the breakaway’s advantage to only 2 minutes. Still it might be a tight one as 2 minutes good be enough for a group of 15 riders in 30 km
Right before reaching the final lap 5 riders attacked from the breakaway from and got away from the others
Those are: Hegreberg, Trusov, Mouris, Mondory and Pedersen. They entered the final in front but still a lot of things can change
35 seconds behind them we have the chasing group, with the other escapes that weren’t able to counter attack earlier
Even though a lot teams are helping with the chase in the pack they are still 2 minutes behind the leading group
On the last ascent of the day the chasing group caught the 5 attackers so we have again a group of 15 riders in front. They have now an advantage of 1 minute and 35 seconds over the pack, with 17 km left from the race
13 kilometers before the finish Flecha attacked from the pack and he got quite quickly a nice gap
In front, we have a new bunch of attacks with Marzano looking to be the strongest
Flecha managed to join the escapes, but it’s only one of the chasing groups as the breakaway has split up
Marzano and Deroo are leading the race as they reach the last 10 km banner
17 seconds behind them Joly is leading the chasing group, which is made by the rest of escapes and Flecha
One minute behind Marzano and Deroo we have the pack lead Festina and SIC Radical
With just 7 kilometers left Deroo and Marzano were brough back in the group. The pack is 44 seconds behind them
Really bad moment to puncture for one of Rabobank’s sprinters: Capecchi
5 kilometers before the finish the escapes are caught and it looks like we going to see a mass sprint
But we have some new moves in the pack as Ballan attacks
He is followed by Baugnies, De Haes and Duclos – Lassalle but Ballan seems to be way stronger
Only one team is able to make a sprint train and that is the Credit Lyonnais, with Bozic, Domoulin and Pozzato. Pretty much all the big sprinters seem to be following them, including Bennati, Vantomme and Hushovd
Ballan seems to have made a gap between him and the other attackers, while those are only a few meters in front of the Credit Lyonnais train
Crash in the pack! Many important riders are involved, including some top sprinters: Guillen, Croket, Sijmens, Marinangeli, Steegmans and Brea. With Guillen and Crocket down this isn’t looking to be a very good race for White Bear. Also Croket seems to be injured
Meanwhile the Credit Lyonnais rider managed to pass the late attackers, except Ballan who looks strong enough to hang on
Pozzato seems to be spending too much time behind his Domoulin’s wheel, bringing Bennati in the same trap
With 500 meters left Ballan seems to be getting tired and losing speed but Bennati and Pozzato are still caught behind Pozzato’s lead – out men
Finally they managed to get away from there, while Hushovd is also coming fast on the other side of the road, but it’s too late as Ballan is already celebrating
Ballan wins GP de Fourmies! Pozzato, Husvovd, Bennati and Baugnies took the next 4 places
