On the heels of the PT kicking off it's cobbles season at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the CT does the same at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.
As the riders take to the startline, KBK has brought together a short but deep startlist, with a number of riders who could take the win.
the race awaits
The favorites for the race are one of two types of rider. On the one hand, we have the best cobble riders in the CT, such as Vanspeybrouck and Albert of Ikea, Gusev of Cillit Bang, Blythe of 100% ME, and Hoste of Bouygues. On the other hand, we have the riders who are strong on the cobbles, but follow that up with a powerful sprint, such as Steegmans of Vespa, Hushovd of Milka, and Eisel of Bimbo.
The bookmakers have chosen Gusev, Vanspeybrouck, and Steegmans as the day's big favorites.
The race finally gets underway, and attacks come quickly, with the break quickly settling down. They are McConvey of 100% ME, Stadler of Bouygues, Uugunbayar of Cillit Bang, and Oliveira of Bimbo.
the break hits an early cobbled hill
However, pretty early on Ikea resolved to bring the break back, and with a 30kph crosswind they tore out from the pack, with only a few Vespa riders holding on.
They quickly caught the break, but then sat up. However, this meant that no breakaway was going to be out today, and the whole group would be together to the first cobbles.
Sutherland of Bouygues leads the pack onto the first cobbles
The first cobblestone section did little except dislodge 5 weak riders from the pack, those five would have to be picked up by the sag wagon as they ran out of time.
poor Rich Cleaver settles in for a long day off the back
However, just as they hit the second cobbled section, Blythe of 100% ME took a spill. His helpers tracked back, and tried to rush him back into the group...
And were able to do so easily.
However, with 55km to go it's Vespa's turn to panic as Steegmans somehow punctures on a non-cobbled hill.
With 50km to go, things are looking even worse for Steegmans, as seven riders, five from Ikea (Albert and Vanspeybrouck included) and two from Cillit Bang (Gusev in there as well), have separated themselves from the pack.
However they are brought back into a 33-man group (about half the starters), with all the favorites other than Steegmans in said group. As such, Vespa are getting nervous, and so Verbist launches an attack.
strong acceleration from the Belgian
No one follows, and with 33km to go Verbist leaves the final cobble section with a 1'08" gab back to a 20 man group, with Steegmans having caught back up.
15km later the pack is no closer to catching Verbist, so Gusev attacks. Vanspeybrouck, Blythe, and Steegmans follow.
here we go...
And so with 10km to go, seven riders have placed themselves away from the pack. Verbist has been joined by the four aforementioned attackers, along with Hoste and Eisel, who bridged over shortly after.
With 5km to go, the group is in the same situation. Steegmans is looking to Verbist for a leadout, which due to Verbist's lack of finishing speed might be a mistake.
But that ends up not being his big mistake, as Steegmans, the obvious favorite for the sprint, loses his focus and, with 2km to go is way off in the back of the group. Meanwhile, Vanspeybrouck and Hoste are perfectly placed on Blythe's wheel. The sprint looks like it will be close...
But it isn't.
Vanspeybrouck wins by a mile, with a powerful acceleration matched only by Blythe's, however Blythe's was backwards. Steegmans comes through 15 seconds later in 2nd, with Blythe third, Eisel 4th, Hoste 5th, Gusev 6th, and Verbist 7th. Hushovd wins the sprint for 8th a bit back, with Sentjens of Intesa in 9th and Vangenechten of Bimbo in 10th.
