Today, we leave Belgium and head to France for a second half of the race which is almost exactly the finishing route from the mythical Paris - Roubaix.
Earlier in the season the podium in Roubaix was Boonen, Burghardt, Cancellara. And with all of them riding here with we should have a hell of a stage ahead of us.
Samuel Sanchez showed what he is made of in the hilly stages but now it's time for him to be in trouble as he will try to defend his yellow jersey in front of the cobbles specialists, with Cancellara needing only 29 seconds to become the new leader of the race
Auber's Damien Gaudin, who finished in the top 10 in Roubaix in the Spring made an early unexpected move and got in the breakaway
Eight riders followed him, but they never managed to join the French man in the lead. Broers (Wikipedia), Giling (JW), Aguilar (Nespresso), Reynes (CdC), Kupfernagel (Ikea), Mugerli (La Gazzetta), Richeze (Pearl) and Petrie - Armstrong (Lipton) spent the day chasing after Gaudin
1st Intermediate Sprint:
1. Damien Gaudin
2. Danilo Kupfernagel
3. H. F Aguilar
It was no problem at all for Festina and a few other teams to bring back the escapes and with more than 50 kilometers to go, Gaudin was the only one left in front of the pack
With the first cobbles approaching, two riders attacked from the pack and soon joined Gaudin in the lead: Nick Nuyens and Jerome Baugnies - two Belgian riders very familiar with the cobble stones
A few moments later, Wim De Vocht followed them, but it would be a real challenge for the Pearl rider to catch the other 2 attackers, especially with the cobbles coming right after the corner
As soon as the leaders reached the first cobbles it was the end for Gaudin, who was dropped by Nuyens and Baugnies. Soon he was caught by De Vocht, who also dropped him pretty quickly, the French man not being able to continue in the pack either
With the first cobbled sections passed, Samuel Sanchez was looking quite good, staying near riders such as Cancellara, Burghardt and Boonen, the 3 riders that finished on the podium of the Hell of the North earlier this year
On one of the toughest sections of the stage, Cancellara's Carmeuse team - mates took control of the pack and under their acceleration the bunch split into 2 groups, with big names in both of them
Van Garderen, L.L. Sanchez, Vanendert but most importantly Samuel Sanchez were among the riders caught in the second group. Almost immediately Nolf and Mourey dropped back to help their leader, but it was all about controlling the time lost now
Meanwhile, in front of the race, Nuyens and Baugnies were entering the final 30 kilometers of the stage. And they had quite an amazing gap, 2 minutes in front of the first chaser, De Vocht and almost 4 minutes over the pack!
When the next cobble stones arrived it was time for another puncheur to let go - the last one that survived the Carmeuse forcing. Bakelats was dropped off but he had Leezer and De Haes to escort him to the finish line
More and more riders were dropped from the Cancellara group, including another important name - Joost Posthuma, 10th in the overall rankings and one of the favorites for the time - trial. The Dutch man had his compatriot, Ten Dam with him to help him reduce the damage
In the next kilometers nothing important happened, as all the big guns were separated from their team - mates and they were maybe too afraid to try something and they were definitely more than happy to put the hilly specialists minutes behind them. Only Boom had 2 team - mates left in the group but the Dutch man wasn't able to drop neither Boonen or Cancellara anyway
Baugnies and Nuyens lost plenty of time in the previous stage so no one was really interested in bringing them back, which led to them entering the velodrome in Roubaix in the leading positions
Today's stage was definitely not a very good one for Pearl, while Bakelants was suffering at the back and trying to control the damage, De Vocht was brought back in the 'pack' right when he was about to enter the velodrome
Nuyens took the second position, in Baugnies' wheel and in the last corner he made his move, being almost impossible for the Lipton rider to stop him
And Nuyens is the king of the Roubaix velodrome in Tour of Northern Europe, with Baugnies forced to settle with second even though he had put in a very strong fight
Ballan and Veelers almost got a gap in front of the chasing group, while sprinting for the last place on the podium, and it was quite surprising the Italian who took the last 8 bonus seconds
Boonen finished 5th but missed his last chance to gain time on riders such as Cancellara, Boom or Devolder, who are clearly better in the time - trial, consolidating the green jersey lead looking to be enough for the Belgian. The main group finished 1 minute and 44 seconds behind Nuyens and Baugnies
Samuel's group entered the velodrome more than 8 minutes after the winner did, a really poor performance which will kick the Spaniard out of the top 10 overall
Even though they didn't make anything notable today, Cancellara, Devolder and Boom move together to take all the 3 places on the podium, while today's performers, Nuyens and Baugnies enter the top 10.
The current podium is most likely going to be the one that we will see celebrating at the end of the final stage, even though the order might change as Boom could be able to gain back those 20 seconds on Devolder in the time - trial and steal the second place from the Belgian.
