It's a beautiful day for watching a cycing race and so we hope for a thrilling day on the pavements.
Top-favorites are Nikolas Maes, Gert Steegmans, Geraint Thomas and Niki Østergaard, while Vangenechten/Sentjens or Stevenson/Saramotins hold chances for a high finish, too.
The two favorites-less teams FC Barcelona and AMEX set the first attacks with Adel Barbari and Willem Van Den Eynde. That's always a good way to show your colors in a race without expectations to battle for the win, isn't it?
The two are joined by more and more riders, as the first kilometers provide several attacks. This leads to the two early attackers struggling to build a gap.
So as Banco's Deiber Esquivel bridges the gap to the leading group, the pack was just about to catch the escapees.
Anyway, Van Den Eynde launched another attack and he was joined by Esquivel. The two quickly established a 55"-gap with still 155kms to go, while the other attackers were swallowed by the bunch.
It looks like we found the break of the day then: no one tried to follow and as the bunch enters the first cobbled sector (135kms to go), the gap is up to 3'00".
The two escapees might have preferred a larger group, but now they have to deal with it. With 110kms remaining, their lead is at 3'30", but already reached it's peak (4 minutes).
And there's some action in the bunch! A rather early attack by Jonas Vangenechten! This move may surprise the top-favorites, as the Belgian is known as a decent cobbler.
Mindaugas Striska joined his move a few moments later. Ekspa's domestique quickly narrowed the gap.
Four kilometers later (90kms remaining) another domestique tries to jump behind: Jamie Sparling attacks the bunch! He has to bridge a 1'00"-lead though, as the group Vangenechten/Striska went away quickly.
84kms to go and the mid-race attackers already caught up to the leading two.. solo-chaser Sparling is 55" behind, while the pack hasn't start chasing yet, being 3'00" in arrears.
Sparling worked hard to close up to the leading group and here he is. It's still 80kms to go and the now 5-men-group leads by 3'20" on the bunch.
Allianz is definitely in a tight spot now, as Boeing, Banco, Gazelle and Ekspa have one of their riders in the leading group.
The German team struggles to chase down the break though, even with 5/7 of their riders leading the bunch. With now 50kms remaining, the gap has grown to 3'40"!
And things remain the same as the leading five already entered the final circuit and today's toughest cobbled sectors. They pace hard and increase the lead to 3'55" with 32kms to go!
Good news for the early escapees Deiber Esquivel and Willem Van Den Eynde also, as they can hang on Vangenechten, Sparling and Striska. Great effort.
29kms to go and the top-favorites can't wait anymore! Maes lost patience with his team, which couldn't narrow the gap.
Thomas and Steegmans quickly jump behind Maes. The top-favorites finally made the first moves.
A group of 3 riders tries to follow group Maes: Østergaard is joined by two super-domestiques Coyot and Grashev.
But this chasing group couldn't bridge the gap and sits up to re-join the bunch. Coyot and Grashev obviously refused to help Østergaard chasing group Maes, which is definitely bad news for Die Berg.
The team now faces a 1'30"-gap on group Maes and 4'00" on group Vangenechten with only 22kms remaining!
That's not what Østergaard wanted to happen. He desperately tries to catch up and attacked one more time. Still a huge effort is needed, as this is the current situation:
E1
<- 2'21" ->
E2
<- 1'15" ->
E3
Striska
Maes
Ostergaard
Sparling
Steegmans
Vangenechten
Thomas
Esquivel
V.D. Eynde
The bunch finally sits up, as all of the favorite or favorited teams went on the attack. Bad news for Flecha, Saramotins or Chavanel though, as those riders might have hoped to keep the pace of the favorites til the end.
Keep the pace? Keep the faith! Esquivel looks in great shape and with 14kms to go, he attacks the leading group, which leads by 2'00" on group Maes.
The fighting Esquivel couldn't jump away, as the mid-race attackers are in total control with now 10kms to go.
And their situation looks very good with every kilometer being raced. Group Maes/Thomas/Steegmans is still down by 1'50". Does this 5-men-group really stand a chance here?
It's not certain yet: 8kms to go and Steegmans attacks group Maes. A last try to narrow the gap, which is down to 1'20" due to the higher pace on the cobbled sector.
And it's an action-packed race now, as the leading group splits with Vangenechten launching an attack! Sparling and Striska jumped behind.
Early escapees Esquivel (+ .25) and Van Den Eynde (+ 0.41) suffer now and group Maes/Steegmans/Thomas (+ 1.05) is nearing.
Vangenechten couldn't stay clear and now it's Striska, who tries to solo away from the leading three, just as they cross the 5km-mark.
Group Maes/Steegmans/Thomas is all together again, but it doesn't look they will close the gap to the leading group, as this is the situation with 3.5kms to go:
Striska
Vangenechten Sparling
at 12"
Esquivel
at 40"
Van den Eynde
at 1'00"
Maes Steegmans Thomas
at 1'19"
Ostergaard
at 2'40"
It's a vicious circle for the top-favorites. Neither Maes nor Thomas want to lead Steegmans to the front, as his speed is a real threat. Plus, Thomas has his teammate Sparling within reach for the victory anyway.
So we take a look back to the front, where Striska is brought back by Vangenechten and Sparling. 2.5kms remaining, they lead by 45" on solo-chaser Esquivel and it's certain, that those three will battle for today's win.
As they hit the final cobbled sector with 1.7kms to go, Vangenechten is the first to kick!
Sparling could stay at his wheel and follows easily, while Striska struggles and falls behind.
Vangenechten's still leading as Sparling hasn't accelerated yet..
..and it looked like he couldn't. Jonas Vangenechten claims the win and fooled the top-favorites with his surprising early move. Plus he took advantage of an almost perfect position, being accompanied by Boeing's Jamie Sparling, who celebrates an unexpected 2nd place.
Mindaugas Striska lost 25" on final kilometers, but will be pleased by finishing on podium. Great day for Ekspa, which definitely couldn't expect a podium before this race.
But what's happening behind? Group Maes/Steegmans managed to catch up to the early escapees and already passed Van Den Eynde.
Deiber Esquivel stills holds on to his 4th place with less than 700meters to go. No matter where he finishes, both him and Van Den Eynde really put a great effort today.
It's Geraint Thomas, who takes the 4th, outsprinting Banco's Gert Steegmans and Deiber Esquivel, who finishes as 6th.
That said, we see Nikolas Maes being beaten by Esquivel and that's another surprise today. Definitely poor day for Allianz, as they looked strong on paper with Maes/Coyot. But first, the whole team struggled to bring back the escapees and then Maes was all alone against Boeing and Banco, who both finished with two riders in Top-6.
Willem Van Eynde came in 8th, giving his team some points out of nowhere.
Die Berg will be as disappointed as Allianz: Niki Østergaard finishes 9th, 3'13" behind Vangenechten. His attack(s) came too late and he missed the decisive move by Maes/Steegmans/Thomas.
Arnaud Coyot rounds up the Top-10, finishing 10'40" behind today's winner, accompanied by Martin Grashev as 11th.
Ekspa's Aleksei Saramotins won the bunch-sprint for 12th, where FC Barcelona's best is Geoffroy Lequatre (17th).
