Stage 5 offers a profile that could easily be mistaken for an Ardennes Classic, with Mur de Huy, Mur de Amay and Côte de Hermalle all tackled before reaching Engis for an uphill finish. Plenty of climbs to make a difference for those looking to make up lost time, while Westra and his Gazelle team will have to fight hard to keep the race lead through the day.
The names going clear in the morning breakaway are Hugentobler, Petrovski and the ever aggressive Veyt - taking place in a break for the 3rd time in the race.
Back in the peloton, Gazelle do most of the work, as you'd expect. They do get a bit of assistance at least - surprisingly from Allianz. Admittedly, Bret is sitting in 2nd overall, but you'd think that he'd want a low pace to hang on.
The pace dished out is initially not very high, but inside the last 50 km some riders are starting to lose contact at the back of the group.
Somewhat surprisingly, one of them is Demare, who was expected to hang on for much longer than this. Along with him, also some of the time trial-specialists like 4th overall Hansen, 5th Sebright and 10th Mockus.
With 30 km to go, we also see the first attack from the main field. No top names, but Vink, Hrinkow, Wellens and Galle are all decent climbers.
The race meanwhile enters it's decisive phase. Three climbs remain, including the uphill drag into Engis for the finish.
Up the slopes of the first of those climbs, Cioban launches the first serious favourite attack. Surprisingly, only Grau responds.
Further up the road, the four previous attackers catch and drop the members of the early breakaway - one by one.
Behind, Gazelle and Allianz are working hard to bring everything back together.
Though they still haven't done so by the start of the descent down towards the penultimate climb, they have at least reeled back Cioban and Grau.
The four leaders are around a minute ahead, with Vink and Hrinkow looking to get rid of their two companions as they reach Côte de Hermalle.
Over the top of the climb they hold a small advantage over Wellens, who has ridden away from Galle. Surprising to see the Swedish rider left behind by these riders, given that he's on paper the best puncheur of them.
And more importantly, the gap back to the main field has increased to almost two minutes!
Determined to improve their GC position today, Grau and Cioban once again attack from the peloton - and this time Westra follows!
A gap does open up behind them, but it is soon closed by Allianz after Cioban and Grau refused to work together with the race leader.
Back to the front, Hrinkow has left his companions behind in an attempt to go for solo glory.
The attack appears to have been a bit premature though, as Wellens and Vink have almost managed to drag themselves across at the foot of the final climb, 3 km from the finish.
Amazingly, the peloton is still 1'30 back!
The duo makes the junction a few hundred metres later, while the gradient quickly kicks up to around 10%.
This gives them a clear look of the race behind, where Sys has jumped from the main field and linked up with Galle.
Realising that the victory is actually within reach for them, the three leaders now make the mistake of starting to look around at each other. This leads to nobody wanting to set the pace, and their gap is gone in no time.
The catch is made with 1800m to go, followed by a new Cioban attack!
This time there's no response from Grau or anyone else, and the young Romanian shoots clear!
Entering the final kilometer, he has already gained 30 seconds on the rest. Sitting 1'34 back in the GC, he needs 1'14 to pass Westra in the overall.
That is obviously not going to happen in such a short time, especially as Grau has picked up the pace behind and leads a Gazelle-dominated chasing group.
Interestingly, it is Lalouette and Shaekhov following Grau the closest, and not Westra. It's possible that they've been given free hands to take bonus seconds and move up the overall after all the work they've done for him.
Dominant victory for Cioban, who will climb in the GC today.
The sprint for 2nd requires a photofinish, showing that Grau gets 2nd and a reward for being aggressive all day. 3rd for Lalouette, who thus gives Gazelle a 1-2 in the overall standings!
Shaekhov finishes 4th, making Gazelle's day even better. Ilias comes in 5th, with overall winner Westra taking 6th.
Lasca, Saramotins and Carrara follow, with an angry Hrinkow in 10th - knowing that he could've won today.
31 riders are clocked on the same time as Grau, but a gap has opened behind Abakoumov and Vennell. Selig desperately tries to finish close enough to prevent a gap from being registered, but he fails and loses 50 seconds on those ahead of him.
Also missing out in the end are the following:
Bret (2nd overall) Harrison (6th) Hutchings (7th) Dekkers (11th)
Huge fail from Allianz, who worked so hard throughout the day, but ends up with both their well placed riders losing time and positions in the overall.
All but three of the riders who started the stage inside the top 10 overall lost time, shaking up the overall quite heavily. As already mentioned, Gazelle takes place 1 and 2 with Westra and Lalouette, but a surprising 3rd is Vennell!
4th goes to Shaekhov, who was just 6 seconds short of making this an all-Gazelle overall podium. Saramotins completes the top 5.
