The opening stage from Middelkerk to Zottegem (which is featured with a finishing loop, to be ridden 3 times) will be one of the most interesting of all four stages: the hilly route, which features also four cobbled sectors, makes for some questions.
Such as, wether the hills or cobbles will be the biggest factor. And there's actually another factor: the wind, which comes at 58kmh at the start! This plus some rain drops falling - here we are with epic circumstances!
And an early breakaway group of 6 riders, that sees some notable names trying to escape from the bunch early into the day:
Joseph, Blot, Bolivar, Wijerathna, Jim and Polanc
Joseph as an actually good cobbler (but who may fear the hills) and teams like Allianz or also Boeing with a maybe tactical move for further attacks of it's captains..
The group is allowed to go clear and the six lead by almost 9 minutes as they battle for the first bonus seconds with now 144km remaining:
Sprint #1
Joseph
Bolivar
Wijerathna
The heavy rain and also stronger crosswinds (up to 65kmh) make for a tough race. Team Hornbach therefore starts to take control of the pace only a few moments later, so the chase is already on with the gap being quite huge.
Joseph also takes out the second sprint, as the escapees are now (100km to go) to reach the first cobbled sector soon:
Sprint #2
Joseph
Blot
Wijerathna
It stopped raining, but the road remains slick.. and the first to hit the road is Vantomme! Definitely not the best moment (it never is), as the peloton sets a high pace reducing the gap to 6'10" in the meantime!
And the premium sprinter will face a tough second half of the race: we haven't got any informations from Quickstep's DS yet, so we don't know wether Vantomme may be injured or not. Anyway, he won't get any support by his team (which still has Baugnies or De Maar to support) and won't make it back to the bunch! So it's about avoiding the time limit and maybe saving some energy for the sprint stages.
It ain't the last crash, unfortunately. And it ain't the last big gun hitting the road either: Franzoi goes down 77km before finish! His crash looks ugly, but he will get back on the bike..
And of course the team goes all-in for it's superstar: the likes of Veelers, Wynants or Traksel try to bring Franzoi safely back into the bunch..
They succeed! Franzoi is back in the peloton, where only Vantomme (+ 2.23) got dropped by now (70km remaining) - a few others already struggle to hang on though!
No more crashes or action for now, so it's the early escapees versus the chasing bunch, as we make a jump into the final 50km.
The breakaway group will also challenge for today's final Intermediate sprint, but their lead is down to less than 3 minutes in the meantime:
Sprint #3
Blot
Bolivar
Joseph
37km to go and the peloton - now led by Hornbach (so Franzoi may feel better after his crash), Quickstep and Carlsberg - narrowed the gap to 2'30"!
And 30km before finish, the bunch enters the final cobbled sector! So this may be the moment, where less strong puncheurs may go for an attempt.. anyone? Yes!
Eichler and Abelouache attack the pack!
Ain't exactly what some fans or managers had hoped for at this point, but of course the duo deserves being mentioned, as they open up a small gap quickly.
This move also leads to a more hectical race now and the cobbled sector (or maybe even more the short climb a few moments later) made the peloton go into three pieces!
14 riders established a small gap on the next bigger group (69 riders), trying to pull the attacking duo (and early escapees) back! Most notable names:
De Maar/Baugnies/Armee Lagab/Bibby Steegmans Del Nero/Visconti
So obviously it was more Van Asbroeck (who's working at the front), who made the difference here, as some domestiques are right there instead of big names like Franzoi, Nuyens, Langeveld or Maes!
And it's Nuyens and Veelers as the most notable names trying to narrow this 30"-gap with now 25km to go!
They do! 22km before finish, the "Quickstep-group" is pulled back by the bunch (which is at 72 riders now).
The early breakaway leads by 1'20" and may now face a tough finish.
But first, this breakaway group goes into pieces a few moments later: Blot and Joseph unsurprisingly appear to be the strongest and drop their former companions!
The attacking duo Eichler/ Abelouache is at 55" in the meantime, but also the peloton ain't too far behind at 1'25".
The biggest news is another split in the bunch though! 48 riders remain in the main peloton, but we notice that Haussler got dropped! Bad legs, bad positioning?
Or is it the again tougher pace now? Anyway, the race is back with some action 18km before finish, as three riders attack the peloton:
Del Nero, Weiss and De Maar!
So two allrounders (Del Nero, De Maar) and one "non-cobbled" puncheur on the move, which may be an indicator, wether the cobbles made a big difference or not..
It's Del Nero, who looks the strongest on that move and he easily overtakes the duo Eichler/Abelouache as well as dropping De Maar/Weiss for a solo-attempt 16km before finish.
The leading duo Joseph/Blot is still a minute ahead.
And Del Nero is reeled in by the bunch (48 riders) 12km before finish! As soon as he caught up to the last two remaining early escapees, he didn't really try to fight solo, it seems.
So... Joseph/Blot 52" in the lead with the bunch, now led by Gazelle and Quickstep, still on the pursuit.
10km to go and the leading duo is still in the lead by 41".. also still 48 riders in the main bunch, but some big names look in serious trouble far behind in this group:
Franzoi and also Baugnies! The first may just hope to survive this stage without any losses after his crash, while the latter might have focussed too much on Franzoi.
And it happens 6km before finish: the latter 19 riders in this peloton struggle to stay with the now 29 riders in front! It's flat from now on and Hornbach goes again all-in for Franzoi (and also Veelers). Let's have a quick look at the situation:
E1 (2 riders)/ Joseph Blot
P (29 riders)/ at 0.18 Nuyens, Steegmans, Westra, Kosic De Maar, Armee, Van Asbroeck, Meersman, Waeytens Lagab, Bibby Maes Langeveld, Weiss, Van Zandbeek, Sambris Nepomnyachsniy, Danacik, Cheng Lee Del Nero, Visconti, Koren Ostergaard, Hansen, Bochman Thomson Maes, Fouquet Pagoto
A1 (15 riders)/ at 1.08 Franzoi, Eichler, Traksel, Wynants, Lindeman Baugnies Gaudin Konrad Lilholt Abelouache Bolivar, Routley Sys, Lietaer Hategeka
A2 (4 riders)/ at 1.35 Veelers Grashev, Sparling Polanc
A4 (23 riders)/ at 3.21 Haussler and more
So especially Haussler or Veelers are likely to lose some time today, maybe as the two biggest names. Of course if Group Franzoi/Baugnies will lose time as well, this would change then. Many Quickstep-boys in the bigger group though, so what happened here?
Quickstep finally noticed that Baugnies got dropped and thanks to a now smart tactic to slow the pace a bit, the group with Franzoi and Baugnies catches up to the bigger group 2km before finish!
This rather chaotic situation and the tactical slowdown may help the leading duo though: their lead is up to 50" again!
Back to the leading duo as the situation behind may indeed help them staying ahead of the main bunch! Still a clear gap as they enter the finishing stretch.
This gap is down to 28" with only less than a kilometre to go though, as De Maar kicks off the bunch sprint with an impressive acceleration. Who's in the mix as well?
With Haussler and Veelers being dropped, it's most of those other fast finishers trying to hang on with De Maar:
De Maar
Nepomnyachsniy Steegmans Del Nero Weiss Koren Westra
all established a small gap on the remaining bunch, so this may be the names to watch out for the final hundred metres..
Just like the still leading duo of course. Joseph powers into the final corner with Blot trying to hang on. De Maar narrows the gap to less than 20", which may be important eventually..
But he won't fight for the win, which is taken by Joseph ahead of breakaway companion Blot, who couldn't benefit from his better position in the sprint.
Huge win for Joseph and also a great result for Blot, as both also took a lot of bonus seconds during the stage!
De Maar comes in 3rd and he's the reason, why there's no more gap between the duo and the bunch! At least something for the bigger names in this group and of course allrounder De Maar himself!
A few moments later, Steegmans, Nepomnyachsniy and a strong finishing Koren go for the next positions. The latter won't be the only TT-specialist, who completed an important stage result here:
Same goes for Bibby or Westra in particular, who hang on with the group as well! Also Bochman and Thomson as better TTlers finished in this bigger group.
The big cobblers Baugnies (9th) and Franzoi (44th) might have hoped for more, but both struggled and will be happy to finish in this group. Baugnies though with a great finish eventually, so he indeed might have just missed this one split due to bad positioning behind Franzoi.
One of today's biggest losers will be Haussler, who finishes 2'18" behind the first group. Same as some other sprinters like Hutarovich or Peeters.
Vantomme managed to finish the race within the time limit as very last today, with more than 19 minutes in arrears. The team will just hope for him not being injured to go at least for the next two stage wins.
And of course you might have missed one name here so far: Thomas comes in as 62nd, finishing with the same time as Haussler. A quiet race for the Britain, who seemed to suffer from those short climbs and might have lost all GC-hopes at this point.
This GC is led by Joseph, 14" ahead of Blot and already 28" on De Maar thanks to his bonus seconds. The remaining GC-favorites are 36" behind and may hope for this decent cobblers to struggle in the concluding ITT at least.
