It's a perfect day for cycling on the Dutch territory. There's no chance to see rain today and the wind is barely there.
Last year, the race was decided in a sprint between the main favorites of the race. Will the same thing happen today or someone will be strong enough to take the race on his own?
After the 5 laps of the race we will find that answer and we will know the name of the winner as well.
Six riders made it in the day's breakaway: Grippo, Zingle, Brandle, Rutkiewicz, Valinin and Peterson. They've got a maximum advantage of 7 minutes but like in any other one day race it's very hard for the escapes to stand a chance in front of the pack
With 2 laps to go, the escapes had less than 3 minutes left from their advantage. 3 riders attacked from the pack and began their own chase
Vanspreybrouck, Zaini and Proni were the 3 attackers and it wasn't long until they managed to join the leading group. But the group entered the last lap of the race with a gap of 1 minute and a half between them and the pack.
With the finish line approaching, the group started to break apart on the main climb of the lap. Zingle, Rutkiewicz and Brandle were in front with 25 kilometers to go but they had less than one minute in front of the pack
In the last kilometers of the climb, the steepest ones, Caruso made his move in the pack, with Pozzato quickly following him. It wasn't the decisive attack as a lot of riders were able to follow but it was the end of the breakaway group
10 kilometers before the finish, 11 riders were leading the race, three teams being able to bring 2 riders in the leading group, which will most likely fight for the victory
Here's the composition of the group: Filippo Pozzato, Luis Pasamontes (Mercedes), Aleksandr Efimkin (Milka), Simone Ponzi, Damiano Caruso (Wiggle), Kim Kirchen (Bacardi), Maxime Monfort (Lego), Anthony Roux
(UBS), Aleksandar Flügel, Jonas Ljungblad (Ikea), Rob Ruijgh (HighRoad)
35 seconds behind them, Gilbert, Claeys and Sokolov were trying to join the leading group but it looked very hard if not impossible for Gilbert to get back in the game
Rob Ruijgh attacked on the flat section before the finish and got a small gap in front of the others but as soon as the road started to go up he was caught, with less than 5 kilometers left to ride
With the group together again, it was Roux who made his move after the Dutch rider was caught
Kirchen, Flugel and Ponzi were to first to react to his attack but with the downhill coming soon after that there weren't any big gaps
Still that move gave Roux a good boost and he entered the final kilometer of the race with an advantage of a few meters in front of his chasers
Ponzi looked stronger than him in the last kilometer and the Italian reduced the gap right before the final uphill section that will end the race
The hill is definitely helping Ponzi, who's looking better but is going to be really close...
Anthony Roux hangs on and takes an amazing win for UBS, by only just in front of Wiggle's Simone Ponzi!
Flugel rode the last kilometer alone and he grabs the last place on the podium
Last year's winner, Kim Kirchen, missed the podium, but fourth isn't a bad place at all
Efimkin led the sprint for the fifth place, in front of Pozzato, Caruso and Pasamontes, while Monfort and Ruijgh rounded up the top 10
