The sun is beginning to set on this years Protour, wedged in between the last two stage races is the GP de Fourmies. Advertised as a race for sprinters most of the Protours best fast men are here to try their luck on this circuit race.
We have 9 laps to go around this 21km loop, there are three hills of varying difficulty on the route I will name them as follows:
@3km “Hard Hill” 1 kilometre at an average of 10%
@10km “Short Hill” 800 meters at an average of 3.8%
@13.5km “Plateau” 600 meters at an average of 3.5%
The circuit actually finishes on a downhill of about 2% which is going to make it ultra quick if it is a sprint. But as you can see there is some potential for a breakaway here.
The French bookmakers seem to put the riders in alphabetical order and only go so far down the list as the favourites are Bennati, Ballan and Bewley. Ignoring two time Tour de France stage winner Van Stayen, always dangerous Hagen, Russian fast man Serebriakov and surely you cannot bet against Sony Ericsson’s Granjel Cabrera!
After some early foreys, the peleton are happy to let a two man breakaway get clear. It should be quite easy to keep this small group on a leash but for Matt Rowe (Lipton) and Joseph Cooper (Jack Wolfskin) have some TV time here!
Rowe and Cooper can soak up some cheers for now
Not a great deal happens behind as the riders start to mark their cards as to where the main difficulties on this circuit lie. With four circuits to go (just over 80km) the two riders have five minutes.
Four circuits left for our twosome
The peleton is being led by La Gazzetta and Pearl Adidas, the latter team with a name I have not mentioned Vanderbeist who was close to taking a stage in the Tour this year a couple of times.
Upping the Gaz
The pace is high and a couple of riders lose touch at the back of the peleton on the Hard Hill section. It is two riders that one would not have expected to be dropped on such parcours too, as Bakelandts and Morkov are the names.
Hard Hill claims some victims
Two circuits (42km left) then and the lead two still have two minutes and twelve seconds, the peleton are trying to reel this in slowly. If DS’s were hoping that Bakelandts and Morkov were going to get back they would be disappointed as they are now 100 seconds back from the pack and falling away.
Five riders use the hard hill section to launch the first big move – it is a big move as it involves some real good roulers. Burghardt (Wikipedia), Martens (Jack Wolfskin), Lund (Philips), Steurs (Nespresso) and Muravjev (Sony Ericcson) are those roulers.
Five men give it a dig on the penultimate circuit
Wikipedia’s Burghardt is known as a former Paris Roubaix – Ronde double winner and is the big danger man here. He powers away from his four companions and reels in the early breakaway.
Burghardt – shows his strength
Wikipedia have become experts at this sort of tactic recently as we have seen with Tejay Van Garderan. The German champion is really powering this with only really Lund able to get anywhere close to him. The roll through the line and hit the bell, with 21km to go this is the situation:
Burghardt
Lund at 19 seconds
Martens, Stuers, Muravjev at 34 seconds
Cooper at 57 seconds
Peleton at 1.34
The three quickly bridge to Lund on the final Hard hill climb and the peleton are in full pace mode beginning to reduce this dangerous advantage. Before the last two small hills Burghardt seems to be losing his powers and the writing may be on the wall.
Burg finding it hard
The German has 34 seconds on Lund, Martens, Stuers, Muravjev and 56 seconds on the peleton. He really fades on the ascent of the short hill as the peleton nab the other four they get their prey on the ascent to the plateau.
As we enter the final 4km, it is clear that this will end in a fast sprint as the sprinters begin to prepare themselves for this dash to the line.
3900m to go: Sprinters prepare themselves
Most of the action is to the right of the pace snake, Marangelli and Rodriguez Serra (NOT Bennati) are visable in their pink shirts. The Philips team have set up a separate train with Pederson, Serebriakov, Granjal Cabrera, Van Stayen, Bennati and Farrar are there. On the left of the pace snake we can see Pearl Adidas trying to set up Vanderbiest (who has Hoffman on his wheel) through Mauro Richeze.
It is strange to see La Gazzeta not setting up Bennati, is their dissention in the ranks of the team rumoured to be splitting up at the end of the year?
Anyway the racing sees Vanderbeist getting on his partners wheel as the three trains move forward together. The advantage today looks like it will be with the teams that set up trains rather than those following.
2500m to go Pearl get the act together
The sprint starts and Rodriguez Serra quickly rounds his lead out and takes the lead, it is a perhaps a sign of inexperience though as the others Serebriakov and Vanderbeist wait for their moment. Behind them Van Stayen, Farrar and Bennati begin to move forward.
1400m to go Rodriguez Serra gets a rush of blood
On the right hand side of the road things start to get awfully bunched and Serebriakov is getting squeezed out. There is more space in the left for Vanderbeist as he powers clear of his lead out with Hoffman closely on his wheel. These two move forward now level with Rodriguez Serra as they go under the kite.
A kilometre to go
It is crowded on the right, Bennati is finding a way through but is not coming on strong enough. It looks every bit now a battle between France and South Africa as Hoffman and Vanderbeist fight every inch of the way.
500m left Hoffman is really challenging as Rod Serra stays on
The Lafarge man following the Vanderbeist and Hoffman wake is Bonnet, and it is Bennati in fifth. Up front Hoffman pushes hard, but Vanderbeist holds on for a welcome home victory.
Vanderbeist takes the sprint win over Hoffman
The South African was second on the Champs Elysees too but will give Nespresso some welcome points here. In the final 500m Rodriguez Serra stopped sprinting and faded back with Bennati just piping Bonnet for third place. It is Mondory who takes fifth for Pearl Adidas what a day for them.
Rest of top twenty behind lead two
Rodriguez Serra is ninth, behind team mate Santambrigio (7th), Serebriakov is 6th, Reihs 8th and Van Stayen is 10th.
We have two DNF’s today: Portal (Nespresso) and Isaac Speirs (Domina Vacanze)
