Welcome to the biggest cobbled race of the continental tour, E3 Prijs. Expect the ten teams here to battle it out in an attept to secure this HC race.
As we get underway I get news that the bookmakers have closed the odds with Gusev favourite closely followed by Vanspeybrouck and Blythe.
A group of ten soon forms off the front: Jarc, Hacecky, Lucas Martins, Perrett McConvet, Delise, Agnoli, Balloni, Luzi and Malori
On the first cobbled section Hacecky punctures and is pulled back
The break is kept on a tight leash, and as they hit the first of the climbs with 90km to go they have never had more than 3 minutes
As the peleton hits that climb Kluge sprarks things off by attacking
And 10km later he bridges the gap, which is now down to a minute thirty.
He immediately goes off solo
The peleton catch the break soon after
As we approach the first cobbled climb with 70km to go the peleton splits, Blythe, Albert, Eisel and Hushovd all miss the split
Bimbo manage to pull it back together again though
Over the next climb a group of 20 go clear
which quickly shrinks to 11: Blythe, Kozontchuk, Giaux, Thomas, Vanspeybrouck, Quinziato, Steegmans, Vangenechten, Van Impe, Gusev and Eisel. They are still a minute behind Kluge but have 2 minutes on the peleton with the rest of the favourtes
A lack of Impetus allows Coenen, Andersson and Cappelle to rejoin
All three fall off the back soon enough though
Giaux also has to let go, with 52km remaining
The two 100% me riders are piling on the pressure and they manage to drop Quinziato and Van Impe with 38km left, Kluge still has 39" at this point
Over the top of the penultimate hill, 26km to go and still Kluge has 50 seconds over this group of 8 riders
17km to go and Vanspeybrouck attacks
Eisel, Steegmans and Kozontchuk try to go after him
They fly past Kluge who is completely spent
with 14km to go Vanspeybrouck has 15 seconds on Eisel and Steegmans with the other a further 30 seconds behind
Over the final climb Blythe and Gusev get rid of their companions
They catch Eisel and Steegmans who have fallen 45 second behind our leader
None of them want to risk coming 5th so they fall further behind Vanspeybrouck
The sprint for 2nd kicks off
but the strongest man today is Vanspeybrouck who unfortunately sneaks in while this reporter is distracted by the battle for second
Eisel sprints to second ahead of Blythe, Steegmans and Gusev
Thomas gets 6th with Kluge taking an excellent 7th ahead of Vangenechten and Kozontchuk
Van Impe beat Quinziato to 10th after they both rather creully drop Albert in the sprint after he worked so hard to make up for missing the initial split
The story of today however is how one man is proven much stronger than his competitors; Pieter Vanspeybrouck, take a bow
