Welcome to the East Midlands Cycle Classic. THe day has dawned sunny with no wind, and the favourites are Boonen, Cancelarra and Bewley
After 50km of high tempo racing we are still all together
As we hit the first of the 30 cobbled sections it has started to rain, currently Honkisz is solo off the front of the peloton
He is joined by Lay and Burke
Mas gets in on the fun as well
We have a split in the peloton, and Thomas and defending champ, Rowe have missed out
Pendleton's pull it back together
Not a good day for Thomas as now he punctures, his team don't seem to care, local interest is flagging already
Moschella joins the break, while Galdos has to abandon.
Murakami now crosses the 2 minute gap
On the next cobbled section Burke falls and is dropepd by the break
He is soon picked up by the peloton
The cobbled section allows Thomas to get back on the rear of the peloton
50 riders miss a slit as the peloton is now getting really strung out, Verbist, De Vogt and the happless THomas all miss out
As the road hits 9% the peloton comes back together
The pace is being kept quite high, and with 117km to go the break is pulled back
The peloton is now down to 100, on the plus side it has stopped raining
Drucker and Joseph now attack, this could be a very dangerous move if the peloton aren't careful
So naturally, having not let the early break ever have more than 2 minutes, they let this gap jump up too 3 almost immediately
And with 78km to go the gap is up to 5 minutes, the peloton is getting pathetic now
With 60km to go it's now 6 minutes, surely someone will try to chase, please?
The pace is picked up! Lots of teams are chipping in as the chase group drops to 46
Steurs, De Vocht and of course Thomas have missed out
Bad news for Wikipedia as Summerhill gets dropped trying to get water
Now 50km to go for the leaders and their gap is 4'36"
Ten Dam throws in a cheeky attack, the peloton really need to work together if they want to pull this back
A few km later and Ten Dam is pulled back, the peloton is down to 35 now:
Ten Dam, Florencio, Sieberg (Jack Wolfskin)
Muravjev, Fouquet, Ballan (Sony)
Lhotellerie, Cancellara, Vandousselaere (Carmeuse)
Steegmans, Burghardt, Kondrotas, Kruopis, Heijboer, Kocjan (Bacardi)
Verbist, Bewley (Milka)
Sibilla, Boonen (Nestle)
Pozzato, Ostergaard (Festina)
Van der Velde, Knees (Cyclevox)
Franzoi, Leezer (Pearl)
Devolder, Gusev (Spyker)
Joly (Colombia)
Baugnies, Zingle (Webeffect)
Schumacher (UBS)
Mertens (Pendleton's)
Fenn (wiggle)
Flecha (Warner Bros)
Eeckhout (Wikipeda)
40km to go for our leaders and their lead is down to 3'15". ALso I've just noticed that it's started rainning again
Vandousselaere drops off the back of the peloton
As do Kocjan and Mancuso
Burghardt throws in an attack, Bewley and Gusev follow
Sony take on the resposability to chase
Devolder doesn't quite keep up with the other two attackers as the quickly gain a minute
He joins them as they reach a crossroads with no indication of which way to go
After Sibilla does a bit of work Boonen attacks
On a decent Bewley tries to attack clear
Burghardt goes after Bewley as they come up to some lapped riders
Boonen is followed by Ballan, Pozzato and Baugnies as he catches Devolder
Now Cancellara attacks
29 km to go and we have 2 leaders
Then Burghardt 10 seconds ahead of Bewley and a minute behind the lead pair
Boonen is 15 seconds behind Bewley
Then come the chase group of 22, 30 seconds off Boonen
Boonen catches Bewley
And we now have a three man chase group as they join Burghardt as well
Cancellara attacks across to them, with Pozzato and Baugnies following
And as Pozzato pulls everyone back to the chasers Boonen and Burghardt attack
Cancellara and Bewley follow and the four go clear again
20km to go for the leaders
The chasers are now just 24 seconds back
The next 15 seem to have dropped off the pace, they are at +1'13"
Franzoi hasn't given up, as he attacks
Ballan pulls him back
Drucker and Joseph are working well together and with 10km left they still have a small gap
A kilomtre later and we have a lead group of 6. There is still one cobbled section to go
Baugnies and Pozzato now attack clear in the chase group
Now Ballan tries to get clear
We hit the final cobbled section
No one wants to push the pace so Pozzato just rides up to them
As does Baugnies, with the chase group not far behind
Ballan and Franzoi ride across with just over 3km to ride
Burghardt kicks off the sprint, Boonen, Drucker, Bewley and Cancellara follow, while behind them Jospeh seems to be cracking
1200m to go and Boonen goes for it
His acceleration is too much for Drucker as he falls back. Bewley is going to try and close the gap
But Boonen is far too strong
In fact, Bewley has to settle for third, as Drucker holds him off. Cancellara gets forth
Burghardt holds onto 5th, ahead of Pozzato and Joseph
Then it's Ballan and Baugnies
Franzoi really can't sprint so only manages 10th
The sprint in the chase group is won by wild card Van der Velde ahead of Devolder and Joly
