although with rjc's help the race is up and running, the race wasn't perfect, as the finish was in a big canyon thing. As such, I had trouble getting pictures there, including of the final sprint. Sorry in advance.
Welcome to Holland for the next round of the crit series. A dead flat crit awaits, so here we go. Kupfernagel of Ikea and the Pokerstars train of Kluge, Holloway, Degenkolb, and Brus are the favorites on the day.
Here we go.
An early attack from McConvey of 100% ME gets the race started, and he is followed by Girardi of Intesa, Serrano of Santander, and Van Den Eynde of Carmeuse.
The four settle down into a break.
will to day be the day for the break to survive? Probably not.
Brolin of Ikea and Cimolai of Vespa decide to try and bridge with around 45km to go.
First Sagan of Ikea...
then Hivert of Highroad...
also try and bridge. All four reach the break.
Pokerstars is up front leading the chase, but surprisingly they are being helped by Ikea, who have two men in the break.
They make the catch with slightly over 22.5km to go.
After another lap, Hivert tries to go again.
Allonca of Santander follows, and they settle down with a 15" gap.
They hold onto their small gap, and with 8km to go they still have 21" to go.
But with 5km to go they are caught by the Pokerstars steamroller.
The train is, in order, Degenkolb, Kluge, Kupfernagel, Holloway, and Brus. Is the race in any doubt now?
YES!
Kluge goes down!
Amazingly no one else does, but it does cause Degenkolb to grab a gap.
And with 3km to go he still has it.
The same goes for with 1km to go, but now Kupfernagel is closing fast. The other Pokerstars sprinters are standing still compared to the Swede, so it's now between him and Degenkolb.
the pack is just outside the picture, shows you how powerful the Pokerstars train is.
Into the canyon they go, and as they turn onto the final straight, Kupfernagel pulls through.
And wins.
Pokerstars grabs a 2-3-4, and they are followed in by the pack. Ikea may have won, but Pokerstars is clearly the strongest team this year.
Results:
1 Danilo Kupfernagel Team IKEA - Bianchi 2h00'27
2 John Degenkolb Team Pokerstars.com s.t.
3 Dan Holloway Team Pokerstars.com s.t.
4 Marco Brus Team Pokerstars.com s.t.
5 Adam Petrie-Armstrong Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
6 Jan Ghyselinck Highroad-TomTom s.t.
7 Niki Østergaard Team Telenor-SAS s.t.
8 Morgan Kneisky Carmeuse Cyclisme s.t.
9 Sean Finning Highroad-TomTom s.t.
10 Remco Te Brake Team Telenor-SAS s.t.
11 David Lelay Intesa s.t.
12 Ole Haavardsholm Team Telenor-SAS s.t.
13 Benedetto Monterastelli Intesa s.t.
14 Andrei Nechita Intesa s.t.
15 Thibaut Pinot Intesa s.t.
16 Lasse B¯chman Team Telenor-SAS s.t.
17 Alfredo Balloni Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
18 Edoardo Girardi Intesa s.t.
19 Ludvig Lundberg Team IKEA - Bianchi s.t.
20 Jonathan Hivert Highroad-TomTom s.t.
21 Nicolas Brolin Team IKEA - Bianchi s.t.
22 Rasmus Guldhammer Team Telenor-SAS s.t.
23 Sam Bennett 100% Me s.t.
24 Ben Stockdale 100% Me s.t.
25 Aleksandar Fl¸gel Team IKEA - Bianchi s.t.
26 Nikola Aistrup Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
27 Willem Van Den Eynde Carmeuse Cyclisme s.t.
28 Vincent Bastaens Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
29 Jean-FranÁois Camier Carmeuse Cyclisme s.t.
30 Christian Ranneries Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
31 George Atkins Team Pokerstars.com s.t.
32 Peter Sagan Team IKEA - Bianchi s.t.
33 Romain Zingle Highroad-TomTom s.t.
34 James Sampson 100% Me s.t.
35 Nelson Alonso Castillo Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
36 Rafael Valls Santander s.t.
37 Jonathan Castroviejo Santander s.t.
38 Daniel Eliad EL AL - IDF s.t.
39 Davide Cimolai Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
40 Johnny Hoogerland Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
41 Daniel Allonca Santander s.t.
42 Joeri Adams Carmeuse Cyclisme s.t.
43 Shlomi Haimy EL AL - IDF s.t.
44 Jonas Decouttere Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
45 Rob Ruijgh Highroad-TomTom s.t.
46 Jens Debusschere Carmeuse Cyclisme s.t.
47 Nizan Margalit EL AL - IDF s.t.
48 Jesse Sergent 100% Me s.t.
49 Roger Kluge Team Pokerstars.com s.t.
50 Connor McConvey 100% Me s.t.
51 Juan Abenhamar Gallego Martin Santander + 2'05
52 Ciaran Cassidy Vespa-Caffrey's s.t.
53 Maxim Burlutsky EL AL - IDF + 2'36
