Here we are in Hamburg ready for the start of the Vattenfall Classic. The flat profile, with the 4 climbs to the short and steep Waseberg as the only difficulty of the day, thus the sprinters being the favourites for today, with the likes of
Tom Boonen Sam Bewley Gert Steegmans
being those with the best odds.
And only 3.5km into the race Steven Caethoven is our first attacker! The Belgian surely doesn’t like his chances in the mass sprint, and Carmeuse prefers to try from a breakaway rather than have him working for Roelandts the whole day.
Seeing there’s no reaction in the peloton, David Lelay, Martin Pedersen and Manuel Cardoso go on the attack. It may be a bit surprising to see Spyker’s leader Pedersen trying so soon, but he probably knows he’s not the fastest sprinter around.
Just when the 4 men breakaway gets a 2’ advantage, it’s Troels Vinter and Paride Grillo who try to join them.
And three more riders go, this time it’s turn for Horacio Gallardo, Anthony Lavoine and Pedro Merino.
But some teams don’t want this breakaway to gain time, most notably Pendleton’s Twicer and Nestlé, so 20km into the race the first breakaway is swallowed by the peloton, and everything is back together.
Not for a long time though, as David Lelay and Anthony Lavoine attack again, just 2km after they got caught. Anthony Brea goes with them.
Behind, it’s Martin Pedersen leading a 7 men group with Manuel Cardoso, Steven Caethoven, Troels Vinter, Pedro Merino, Jure Kocjan and Paride Grillo. Many guys who just got caught are trying again, desperate to get into the breakaway of the day.
Finally the peloton seem to give up, and the breakaway, which is up to 11 men with Fabio Silvestre joining them, has 1’40” on the peloton.
There are still some teams which want someone in the breakaway, so Chiaffredo Grippo is joining the breakaway, and coming close after attacking from the peloton are Andrei Kunitski and Gracjan Lejman.
Still no luck, the breakaway grew and grew and the peloton decided that it shouldn’t go on that way, so again Pendleton’s Twicer and Nestlé’s work mean Gruppo Compatto.
Some guys never surrender though, there we have Manuel Cardoso, Andrei Kunitski and Martin Pedersen, this time with Jonas Decouttere and Honorio Machado.
25km after their attack, and with 130km to go, the breakaway seems established enough to say it’s the breakaway of the day. However, their advantage is relatively scarce, they have 2’23’’ on the peloton, so one team deciding to pull could start the madness again.
And there we go! It’s not one team pulling, but three deciding to attack, encouraged by the not so big gap between the breakaway and the peloton, Geraint Thomas, Francisco Echarri and, a bit behind, Andrew Fenn, go on the attack.
All three join the now 8 men breakaway, which has 3’15” on the peloton with 114km to go. It’s probably safe to say now that this actually is our breakaway of the day. No one can say that it hasn’t been fought hard!
The first climb of the Waseberg has no impact on the breakaway, which is just cruising along.
Meanwhile in the peloton, Bas Giling falls in the short descent which precedes the Waseberg. Unfortunate for the Dutch team, supposedly their riders would be looking for the breakaway, the first time we notice them is because of Bas hitting the tarmac. He can get back on his bike, and quickly joins the peloton, which goes very slow over the Waseberg. No splits here yet either.
With 75km to go, the breakaway has 5’20” on the peloton, and Sony Ericsson, Nestlé and Milka – Vittel send riders to work in the peloton. It’s strange to see Raúl Granjel pulling now, you would think he’s the man to work for.
With 56km to go and the gap down to 4’10”, it’s surprisingly Michael Van Stayen who attacks. Bold attempt from the Belgian sprinter, but Nestlé rapidly increases the pace in the peloton.
And he is caught, his suicidal move means the breakaway has lost 25” in less than 5km, and the gap is down to 3’45” now.
The second climb of the Waseberg is, again, quite calm for the breakaway, although we see Jonas Decouttere struggling a bit with the pace, almost causing a gap.
And we have another crash, Kobe Vanoverschelde has fallen, but he can continue the race. Coming back to the peloton seems to be an impossible task for the Belgian, though, so B&O will surely play their second card, Edvald Boasson Hagen.
And just as the peloton gets atop the Waseberg, we have three more riders in the attack, turn for Jesús del Nero, Philippe Gilbert and Michael Van Stayen.
After the third climb of the Waseberg, del Nero, Gilbert and Van Stayen are still trying to join the breakaway, causing the peloton to increase the pace, with the work of Vesuvio, Nestlé and Milka. With 34km to go the gaps are:
Manuel Cardoso Andrei Kunitski Martin Pedersen Jonas Decouttere Honorio Machado
have 1’23’’ on
Jesús del Nero Philippe Gilbert Michael Van Stayen
who have 23’’ on the peloton
The chase group is now caught with 30 to go. Surely it won’t be the last attempt to avoid the mass sprint.
Last climb of the Waseberg for the breakaway, and Honorio Machado attacks, with Andrei Kunitski trying to follow. The peloton is getting closer, and Machado and Kunitski still want to make it.
And just after the climb, the rest of the breakaway is caught. With 22km to go, Machado and Kunitski have 1’14” on the peloton…
Which splits now! Only about 79 riders are in the first group, with the likes of Lo Cicero, Forero and Caethoven among those dropped.
With 13km to go, the break is all but caught, but then Gert Steegmans goes on the attack, quickly overtaking Machado and Kunitski.
Kunitski is the last man of the breakaway to be caught, just under the 10km banner, with Steegmans following the same fate, and being caught with 6km to go. The front group has now 71 riders, as some were being dropped in the flats for pure exhaustion.
5km to go and it’s clear that we won’t have a very organized sprint. Top favourites Tom Boonen, Sam Bewley, Gert Steegmans, Jurgen Roelandts and Maxime Vantomme are well positioned, while Raúl Granjel is again setting the pace.
1.5km to go and the peloton is strangely slow, nobody wants to be the first to launch the sprint. Vantomme has lost some positions now, and seems at risk to be boxed eventually.
Just under the flame rouge, Boonen powers away in front of the passivity of the rest.
500m to go and he’s opened a nice gap. Will his move be the winning one?
Boonen starts celebrating while Bewley makes his bid… for second? Meanwhile Vantomme is going backwards, he doesn’t seem to have much left, and Roelandts and Swift are boxed in a terribly chaotic sprint with puncheurs and sprinters all over the place.
Boonen wins very easily, great victory for the Belgian and Nestlé, they worked during the whole race in the peloton, and now take their reward.
Bewley takes 2nd with a bike length, but the fight for third is very close, it seems to be Ulissi who finally edges Burghardt and Hagen to complete the podium! Ventoso gets 6th over the World Champion Tejay Van Garderen who gets 7th place for Wikipedia. The American team get a 8th place too, thanks to Summerhill, while Kneisky and Hermans get 9th and 10th for Carmeuse and Rothaus, respectively.
Disappointing result for some of the sprinters like Vantomme or Steegmans, the former seemed to be cooked in the last kilometer, while the latter surely wasted too much with his late attack. Similarly, Ben Swift didn’t deliver after having Vesuvio work for him for a significant part of the race because, just like Roelandts, he was boxed in the disorganized sprint.
