Your top 3 favourites by the odds makers are Vanspeybrouck, Maes, and Baugnies. Really cool to see a C2 rider getting recognition here in a HC race.
Today's breakaway is made up of the 3 riders:
Wellens Hermans Ziegler
They are later joined by 3 more:
Sbaragli Ferreira Berkhout
Some decent cobblers in this group.
They start the climb in the middle of the route with a lead of 5'30".
The climb springboards an attack from Vangenechten, who must being feeling left out from the breakaway as this attack doesn't make much sense; except to his manager who discussed his pre-race tactics before the race.
And Vangenechten rides solo across what was a 5 minute gap to join the breakaway. The peloton now was their lead down to 4'30" with 75kms to go.
Now entering the finale circuit the breakaway's lead is cut to 2'30".
HTC Niewsblad lead the peloton to the first of five times up this climb. Cobbles are waiting for them on the descent.
And there they are as the breakaway reaches them with a 2 minute lead.
It's just a tiny section but everyone is taking full notice of them.
No casualties the first time through so here we again, Allianz has taking over the peloton from HTC Niewsblad.
No action the 2nd time either, the breakaway only has a 1'20" gap now with 21kms to go.
Attack going over the cobbles for the third time, it's Baugnies!
Baugnies joins the breakaway with 2 climbs to go.
But he sits up... everyone is back together.
And over the cobbled section for the second to last time the big crash occurs. Started by Suray, he takes out 26 riders!
Geschke Eichler Aguilar
They are the 3 biggest names going down with the majority of them hitting the pavement can't handle cobbles to began with.
The entire Sram team drops back for Eichler! Including Haussler. They can't leave their so called "team leader" behind so it's going to cost Haussler what could have been a good result. There is no way they are going to rejoin the peloton at this point.
Another crash! This time right before the riders start the final lap, Iglinski.
Last chance for attacks going up the climb for the final time, so Jacobs goes for it.
Vanspeybrouck counters!
On the cobbles for the final time, Vanspeybrouck is getting a small gap as he flies past Jacobs.
Kupfernagel is dropped on the final lap with Cucinotta. But Rothaus still have Vantomme in the peloton surprisingly.
Don't let the banner fool you, there are 2,400 meters to go and the sprint opens up. Vanspeybrouck is still leading by about 10 seconds while Jacob has already been pulled back.
The riders in the top 15 positions are:
Armee De Maar Baugnies Sieberg Okrouhlicky Jacobs Maes Knees Albert Coyot Nooytens De Haes Veelers Vanbilsen Sai-Udomsin
It's a mad scramble sprint. No organization whatsoever...
Sieberg moves into lead as Vanspeybrouck didn't start sprinting until the peloton was on his wheel.
HTC Niewsblad kicked to early and are creating a wall on the right side of the road that is move backwards while on the left PFG-Armavia and BPost are storming to the front.
Albert is now up next to Sieberg. 800 meters left.
Rooftop view shows how tightly packed together they are.
It's all BPost making the charge as Declerq moves in 2nd, and Vansummeren is coming strong to challenge for 3rd. Could it be a 1-2-3 for BPost?!? What a boost this could be for their promotion chances!
Oh and now Vanspeybrouck is right there too after going through his gears to get up to speed... 1-2-3-4!?! Sieberg is the only rider in their way to make it happen. While Eisel is pushing and shoving his way to fit his bike into the first row of riders currently being occupied by BPost.
Albert takes the win by half a bike length!
Sieberg spoils the BPost party by hanging on for 2nd, Vanspeybrouck 3rd. Eisel comes from nowhere to slip into 4th after being around 20th when the sprint started. That leaves BPost 5th and 6th with Declerq and Vansummeren.
Behind they are packed in like sardines. 6 riders per row. So, row 2 makes up our top 12 with Nooytens, Vanbilsen, Coyot, Armee, Veelers, and Knees.
Making row 3 for places 13-18: De Maar, Gaudin, Ventoso, Barredo, Sai-Udomsin, and Zepuntke.
A very interesting race comes down to an unorganized sprint where riders didn't have much room and a lot of luck played an important role in not only missing the big crash but for positioning as well. Very rare to see an HC race come down to luck rather than pure talent.
