199 kms - not a huge amount of cobbles but enough in the finishing circuits to cause our usual selection. Its very flat which may favour a sprint finish perhaps giving Adam Blythe and Gert Steegmans a chance. However we are in Belgium and that means the hotpot favourite has to be Ikea's Pieter Vanspreybrouk. He has won all three of the previous Belgian CT Cobbled races and here he is looking to take an amazing clean sweep.
10 teams had riders entered in for todays race and it was one of the less favoured teams that got the attacks off to an early start.
Ben Day (Highroad) makes an early attack.
Following a number of a attacks and counterattacks a decent sized breakaway of 11 riders got clear. Day (Highroad) and Malori (Milka) were the best cobblers here. Also in this move were Perrett and Bennett (100% Me), Trampusch and Polita (Bbox), Portela and Lucas Martins (Bimbo Nutella), Reekers and Shatshikh (Cillit Bang) and Ascari (Vespa).
The break of 11 make their way through the Belgian countryside
Interestingly no-one from Pokerstars or Intesa are here, not so surprising is the lack of Ikea-Bianchi bodies in the break. They are controlling the situation in the peleton along with Cillit Bang who are obviously confident that Vlad Gusev will fire today.
Ikea and Cillit Bang in control duty.
You may ask why Cillit Bang are controlling they breaks gap when they have two riders in the break, no this is not necessarily duff tactics that we have come to expect from the team... the two riders in the break are just sitting on and not working.
The two Cillit Bang riders are at the back of the break annoying everyone else who is in it.
At 100km to go the gap was a non threatening 2 minutes and 40 seconds, which made it a tempting target for a more serious move and on the last real rise of the day Roy Sentjens (Intesa) and Greg Van Avermart (Bimbo) made their move. Also on the go would be promising German Roger Kluge of Pokerstars.
The men in green wake up to an oppurtunity.
They bridge up comfortably by the 88 km mark. These three riders are dangerous and now Vespa Caffreys come to the front and help Ikea/Cillit Bang conrol what is now a 14 man breakaway. The first set of cobbles comes along and the gap is reduced slight to 1 minute and 36 seconds and over these sections the three amigos (Kluge, Sentjens and Van Avermart) begin to move away from the break.
Gap opens.
Ikea are doing to bulk of the work over the nasty cobbled stuff and catch the original 11 man break, but crucially the 3 man move is still nicely clear. Also not helping the chasing is Vespa strongman Quinzato getting an ill timed puncture.
Quinzato getting a puncture. He never gets back into it and finishes 36th.
The pressure at the front as they are chasing the 3 men begins to take its toll on the peleton over the cobbled sections and whilst the three men still have a lead of over a minute the peleton reduces to just 17 riders. Its splitting up Blythe(100% Me), Steegmans (Vespa), Hushovd (Milka) and Hoste (Bbox)have not made the split, Bbox are trying to bring it together but Ikea are pulling the gap out as 30 seconds becomes 90 seconds quite quickly. Its still not fast enough at the front though as Eisel (Bimbo) and Mertens (Intesa) attack and bridge to the break of 3.
Intesa and Bimbo make their play.
This is a great move as it now forms a lead group of five, Eisel joining teammate Van Avermart (Bimbo Nutella) and Mertens joins teammate Sentjens (Intesa) and Roger Kluge is also there. This is reducing the numbers behind all the time as Cillit Bang, Ikea and Vespa try and get this back quickly. This reduces to just seven guys chasing. With 35 to go this is the situation: E1: group of five E2: Vanspreybrouk + Albert (Ikea), Verbist + Capelle (Vespa), Gusev, De Marr, Eichler (Cillit Bang) at 27 seconds Peleton (with Blythe, Steegmans, Hoste, Hushovd) at 2 minutes and 12 seconds.
Group of seven chasers form
The Cillit Bang boys get E2 to E1 to create a powerful group of 12 riders, but Vespa and Ikea look to take advantage of the work done by Cillit Bang as Vanspreybrouk and Verbist make their first moves...
Two Belgians are off.
Vlad Gusev(Cillit Bang) has to respond and does though with Neils Albert (Ikea) in tow. They bridge to the lead two quickly. Meanwhile, noticing the peleton is getting further and further behind 100% Me finally make a move as Thomas goes with Hoste, its Steegmans and Intesa rider Kozenchuk in tow. It's getting desperate behind the leaders.
With 20km to go we have this: e1: Gusev, Vanspreybrouk, Verbist and Albert e2: Mertens (Intesa) and Eisel (Bimbo) at 42 seconds e3: Kluge, Van Avermart, Sentjens, Cappelle, De Maar at 1 minute and 12 seconds e4: Eichler at 1 minute and 48 seconds e5: Hoste, Thomas, now joined by Steegmans, Kozentchuk (Intesa) and also Blythe at 2 minutes and 4 seconds Peleton led by Milka (for Hushovd) at 3 minutes and 7 seconds. Blythe moves up to Thomas
Its a late move by the e5 group but clearly they are the strongest riders at this point as they pick off the e3 and e4 group in between and begin to reel in the leaders. The lead four are mucking about and get reeled in by the e2 group and with 10 km to go... e1: Gusev, Vanspreybrouk, Verbist, Albert, Mertens and Eisel e2: Hoste and Thomas at 1 minute and 6 seconds e3: Blythe at 1 minute and 20 seconds e4: De Maar and Sentjens at 1 minute and 34 seconds e5: Steegmans, Kluge, Van Avermart at 1 minute and 44 seconds e6: Kozenchuk and Cappelle at 2 minutes and 7 seconds e7: Eichler at 2 minutes and 36 seconds Peleton of 18 riders now led by Milka and Pokerstars at 3 minutes back.
At the front recognizing the dangers coming from behind Niels Albert does a lot of work before a big dig by Verbist with about 6 km to go. He is followed by Gusev and Vanspreybrouk. Verbist is on a fine day here.
Meanwhile the 100% Me strategy unravels as Blythe gets a puncture. Horrible moment for the British team.
Back at the front Eisel and Martens work hard to get back up to the lead three and do so just before the sprint. Albert is tired and is dropping back as Hoste and Thomas also are beginning to fade. The 5 man sprint opens up... Sprint time.
Verbist seems to be leading it out and really battling with Vanspreybrouk in the sprint.
Its between our two Belgians.
It becomes clear which rider has left the most for the final dash, it's no surprise that the Ikea superstar Vanspreybrouk is that fellow...
Vanspreybrouk, Verbist, Gusev...
and its Vanspreybrouk who completes an amazing clean sweep of the four CT cobbles races in Belgium. A great cobbles quadruple!
Gusev just pips the brave Verbist for second, Eisel is a comfortable 4th ahead of the battling Mertens who gets 5th. Neils Albert has enough to hold off the latecomers for 6th, as a disappointed Hoste and Thomas come tiredly over the line.
ahead of Cillit Bang man De Maar and Gert Steegmans is behind that to complete our top 10. By far the biggest disappointment had to be for Adam Blythe, who comes in 14th.
