A fairly simple race. We have 11 laps and roughly the last 1.5km of each lap is a cobbled climb. Favourites here included Ikea's KBK winner Vanspeybrouck, the winner of the cobbled stage in the De Panne Tour Adam Blythe, Gert Steegmans, Thor Hushovd and Leif Hoste. Neither of the races former winners are riding - Franzoi is in the ProTour, O'Grady has retired.
At the end of the first lap, a group of 7 are clear: Haavardsholm, Suparman, Pinot, Appleby, Stalder, Atapuma and El Fares
They are joined in the next lap by Remme and Uugunbayar
With 115km still to go, theres a surpise attack by Thor Hushovd. It's a serious move, as he goes past the breakaway into a solo lead
With 95km to go, Mertens and Boucher also attack past the break - but are 2 minutes down on Hushovd
It's a clever move by Pokerstars. Having previously done much of the relaying, they can now stop - with Vespa now working with Ikea instead.
But while the gap goes up for a bit, Hushovd leading by 3 to 4 minutes, the chase is on. Boucher is caught with 60km to go, Mertens with 50km to go - Niels Albert doing much of the work at this stage
With 33km to go, Hushovds lead is barely more than 30 seconds - Geraint Thomas now working together with Niels Albert. Theres also a blow for Hushovd's Festina teammate of last year Geslin though - the Pokerstars rider has punctured.
Another Pokerstars rider becoming involved is Van Impe - and with Hushovd being caught with 26km to go - he leads a counter move
Hoste, Meersman and Stybar go with Van Impe but behind the big guns have taken to the front of the peloton - Vanspeybrouck, Steegmans, Blythe, Gusev
And as we go up the cobbles for the penultimate time, those 4 riders attack - Vanspeybrouck being the fastest to leap away - good for him as there is quickly a descent to halt the flow of attacks
Vanspeybrouck takes a 30 second lead over 6 chasers - Meersman, Steegmans, Blythe, Gusev, Van Impe and Hoste
A double move from 100% Me now. Thomas attacks the peloton, Blythe attacks the chasing 6
Steegmans, Gusev and Hoste realise they have to follow Blythe, and as they continue to attack each other it is too much for Hoste
But its not working still. The acceleration of the attacks closes the gap to Vanspeybrouck, but the subsequent slowing certainly does not. Closing in on the finish though, Steegmans seems to be edging ahead of Blythe and Gusev
A constant pace is working well for Vanspeybrouck - into the final kilometre...
And victory! Thats 2 out of 2 cobbled classics so far for Vanspeybrouck
Steegmans and Blythe take 2nd and 3rd - making it the exact same podium order as in Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne. Gusev improves on his result there though, with 4th this time
Hoste takes 5th ahead of Meersman, while Van Impe beats Thomas for 7th
And now back to the peleton, with Florencio and Kluge leading the way to round out the Top 10
Hushovd's optimistic move saw him lead the race for 90km, but there is no reward, as he comes in 28th.
