A perfect day for an interesting hilly-flat classic. 138 riders face 198km of short climbs and a flat finish-circuit in Eijsden.
Jürgen Roelandts is top-seeded today, while his strongest opponent could be Jacop Guarnieri.
Bernhard Eisel looks to continue his great shape and several sprinters could challenge Roelandts on a good day.
As said in the preview, some puncheurs like Cyril Gautier, Martin Reimer or Simon Geschke also go for "gold" today.
Anatoliy Pakthusov attacks right from the start, already facing one of today's countless short ascents. Metinvest definitely has to try attacking today, as they lack a top-sprinter here.
The Ukranian champion is joined by Risto Raid and Jerome Cousin. And this three build the first succesful breakaway, as they are allowed to establish a gap quickly.
With 167km to go, they're already 4'00" ahead of the pack. All of the three teams involved will prefer a selective race, so having a rider in a break makes sense.
No reason to chase yet, of course. Tinkoff and Vespa show their colors at the front of the peloton, seeing the gap growing to 6'15" with 142km remaining.
The gap peaked at around eight minutes, but halfway through the race, it's time for the favorites to send their domestiques chasing the break.
We're still facing one more of the three hilly laps (86km to go) and the pack - now led by Vespa, Bouygues and Die Berg - starts cutting down the gap to 5'50".
The three escapees now face the toughest part of the race and even though they seem to enjoy their ride through a beautiful landscape, they keep fighting.
58km remaining and they lost another minute, as they lead by 4'00" now.
Another 20km later (the gap's down to 2'20"..) and we go back to the bunch, where another national champion tries his luck with a break:
Kasper Klostergaard attacks the peloton! He definitely has the needed skills and may this be a sign of an aggressive race? His team still has Hoogerland and/or Kreder for a tactical move.
Klostergaard fights hard to narrow the gap quickly. With 24km left, he's only 30" down to the early escapees.
The peloton is another 40" behind, so it's a close race now..
More teams join the chase: Tinkoff is back at the front of the pack, as well as HTC, supporting Vespa and Bouygues now.
The pack enters the final flat circuit, but we got some news..
The last climbs caused a first major split in the bunch! 44 riders got dropped just ahead of the final flat 20km! Let's have a look who missed the split:
Most notable name is Yauheni Hutavorich. Bad news for his team, as he would have been one of the favorites for the now possible bunch sprint.
Also dropped:
Graham Briggs Oscar Gatto (defending champion of the Hel) Artur Gajek Jurgen Van Loocke Emanuele Rizza
18km remaining and the early escapees set another attack, just as Klostergaard was catching up.
Raid looks strong for a moment. Good news for his team, which lost their best sprinter Briggs due to the split?
Not really, as his attack was short-lived.
Pakthusov and Cousin remain in the lead, as all other escapees got swallowed by the hard pacing 85-men-peloton!
They do not really stand a chance, it seems. Still 14km to go and they hold on to a 35"-gap only.
And they are caught with 10km remaining. With 87 riders still in the peloton and Vespa now dominating the pace, it looks like a bunch-sprint today.
The crit-like circuit causes a crash! Early escapee Pakthusov and one of Tinkoff's countless sprint-domestiques - Trusov - go down!
No chance to catch up to the pack, but fortunately, no one else has been involved.
More news from Tinkoff: Dmitri Kozontchuk tries a late attack! It seems like the Russian team goes "all-or-all", as they still have sprinter Krasnov in the mix!
With just 4km remaining, Kozontchuk may surprise the sprint-trains!
And more riders try to follow: HTC is showing their colors with both Marc de Maar and Jerome Baugnies attacking the pack with 3km to go!
Also Johnny Hoogerland tries to attack late in the race! So as those puncheurs failed to attack the bunch earlier, they now feel like having a chance here.
Kozontchuk still maintains a 22"-gap with 2km left, while Baugnies/De Maar and Hoogerland couldn't stay clear.
Anyway, the late attackers remain leading the bunch, where Jacopo Guarnieri starts an incredible early sprint!
The Italian of course establishes a gap quickly, as no one else went so early in the sprint. His team Vespa worked hard and looked dominant, but they somehow failed to build a train.
With 1,5km to go, the top-sprinters finally follow Guarnieri, as we have the following situation:
Kozontchuk
Guarnieri at 0.08
And the bunch at 0.15
Duque Roelandts Kreder De Maar and Baugnies Rovny Breschel Santos Hoogerland and Eltink
Kozontchuk is caught under the kite, he's left chanceless against the sprinting bunch now.
Also Guarnieri seems to suffer from his early kick, as he faces a tough sprint against the soon-catching-up elite sprinters.
Duque, Roelandts and Kreder remain in the leading positions, while Eisel shows himself, as well as Traksel and Reimer!
Roelandts left Duque behind easily, but Kreder still hangs on to his wheel! It looks like this two will battle for the win..
But also some of the strong-finishing puncheurs appear to be strong in the end: Reimer moved forward on 3rd position, with Breschel and Geschke at his wheel!
The sprint to the line looks easy for Roelandts, he shakes off Kreder, who now faces a German duo:
Reimer and Geschke finish fast!
An easy win for Jürgen Roelandts! The top-favorite had a perfect timing and brings it home in style..
Michael Kreder defends his 2nd, ahead of an incredible strong finishing Simon Geschke, who continues to perform on profiles like today's.
Also Martin Reimer did well as 4th. His speed and climbing skills definitely played out well today.
Martin Velits completes a great result for his team as 5th and looking on the further positions, it appears that the pure sprinters definitely suffered today:
Traksel 7th, Breschel 8th, another Swedbank-rider in Johnny Hoogerland as 9th and Leonardo Duque complete the Top-10.
Cyril Gautier may be satisfied with his 13th place, just ahead of HTC's best Baugnies..
Guarnieri is definitely today's biggest disappointment: starting his sprint way too early, the Italian managed to finish as 15th only. Also Tinkoff may have expected more than Rovny finishing 11th as their best.
