Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen, today is the 5th PT edition of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The favourites Burghardt, Cancellara, Bewley and Boonen are ready for their first opportunity on cobbled roads. In only 193 kilometres we know who can take this prestigious classic as first success of the season.
But before we start the race coverage, one last look on the profile:
Soon after the start, we see the first of today's attacks. Hugentobler, Morkov and Van der Sande are the first riders to get a gap. It does not take long until Breen, Lecuisinier, Gallego Martin, Zubov, and Bongiorno catch up to the trio.
A bit behind, the peleton already slowed down with Lotto – Australia Post and Pokerstars.com in control of the pace . 25 km into the race the 8 riders have already over 5 minutes to the peleton and when it increases to six minutes some more team take their turns at the front: Pendleton's, Team Bpost - Vlaanderen, Wikipedia and VolksWagen-Mapei.
And we have our first victim of a crash: Silvan Dillier. This had to be expected considering the heavy rain and it will surely not be the last one.
His team mate Hugentobler and the other members of the break have increased their lead to seven minutes when they hit the first paved section.
Time to look a bit closer at them:
Everyone takes their turns so nobody just wheelsucks the break to help their leaders. Zubov (73COB) and Breen (72COB) are considered the best cobblers here. The other riders are all on a similar level (65-69COB) but Bongiorno (61COB) and Morkov (62COB) are the worst cobblers.
But time to look back again. The regie told us that Kump, Erviti, Galta and Timofeev crashed on this short cobbled section. Surely, the rain causes some of these crashes. Luckily, no favourite or important lieutenant was influenced by these crashes yet.
But unfotunatelly, it does not take long until the next victims occured: Furdi, Heymes, Wiggins. On top of that Reckweg.
With 100km to go the teams of Becherovka - Kiwibank, Lotto – Australia Post and Pokerstars.com have raised the pace and lead decreased to 5'20''. Things don't look too good for the BotD.
But this does not stops Eeckhout to attack halfway through the race. Is he just impatient, does he see a chance for a win or is it a tactical move for his leader Summerhill? We will see later.
Staellert is the next brave cobbler to make an early attack and moments later, Rowe follows him. But there are also bad news from the other side of the peleton for his team as Moser has a puncture.
These three have to fight for quite some time alone in the wind as they don't team up with their work but eventually they bridge the 4 minute gap to the leading group all on their own. Rowe is the last of them as he needs until the 60km sign.
But it does not look too good for them as the 11 riders have only 3'30'' to the peleton leaded by Simply Red Bull, Becherovka - Kiwibank and Pokerstars.com.
But the favourites should start paying a bit more attention as all of them are way behind:
Boonen is on the right bottom together with his most valuable helpers, Burghardt is a bit more left from this position while some interesting riders like Bewley or Zepundtke are way behind.
But nothing important happened yet and during the next kilometres all of them are moving a bit more to the front part of the pack.
Over the next cobbled section the leading group breaks into several pieces as Eeckhout, Rowe, Stallaert, Breen, Hugentobler and Zubov get a gap towards the rest of the group. The others are coming back on the normal roads but Morkov and Bongiorno never came back.
On the same cobble section the first serious selection in the peleton took place. Kluge sets a pace that causes large groups to lose contact. His countless victims include some strong cobblers like Sibilla, Sinkeldam or his team mate Ingels who just got contact again after an earlier crash.
Only 60 riders remained in the peleton to chase down the leading group that is now down to 6 riders after Gallego Martin, Van der Sande and Lecuisinier finally lost contact. The other 6 still have 2'05'' but only Eeckhout, Rowe and Stallaert are really willing to work or perhaps only they are capable of work.
Let's take a look on the last 30 kms: 3 hard cobble section are still ahead of us and what we cannot see here is that there is still another one only 5 km before the finish but this one will be a very short one and will not influence much. At least that is what is expected.
And the first of these cobble sections is already the time the next riders dropped. After a pace increase by De Vocht, Nolf and Kluge only 49 riders remained in the group of favourites. Biggest name dropped is Lhotellerie.
And more riders will drop out for the race for the win: Ballan's wheels slipped away and thus, he crashed. shares his bad luck.
And this is the moment, thousands of fans on the streets and many more on the TV waited for: With less than 25 km it is Burghardt who really starts the race with an attack on a cobbled uphill section.
Bewley and Cancellara are the first to respond but they cannot reach his wheel again.
Boonen is alone on the chase as he attacked out of the group of the remaining favourites.
And only a few moments later a gap behind Gusev, Vanspeybrouck, Summerhill, Vanmarcke and Blythe opened.
20 km before the he reaches the finish line Burghardt has reached the front but of course, he has to pace further as the others ( Bewley, Cancellara and Boonen who has caught up to the duo) are near. But unlike the trio from behind he has to do the whole effort on his own as neither of Breen, Eeckhout, Rowe, Stallaert, Zubov does any turns which is understandable considering that Burghardt is the much stronger cobbler and that they already did a lot of effort to stay up there.
But the German can't pace enough to defend this lead and 5km later the 4 top favourites are together again.
It's time to get a new overview over the situation:
E1
E2 (+36'' )
E3(+1'28'' )
Burghardt
Vanspeybrouck
Teunissen
Cancellara
Summerhill
Kluge
Boonen
Gusev
De Vocht
Bewley
Blythe
Nolf
Rowe
Vanmarcke
Broers
Stallaert
Kamyshev
Eeckhout
Zepundtke
Breen
Zubov
The pace dropped a bit and "Groupe Vanspeybrouck" is close to catching up. Only 18'' left.
Bewley and Boonen attack. This seems to be a bit surprising because of their sprint strength but perhaps they feared the chasing group.
The duo quickly established a gap of 30'' as they work well together while Burghardt is the only one to work behind.
Group Vanspeybrouck cannot close the gap to group Burghardt. The gap stays at about 20''. But if the race calms down a bit they can surely get back.
But this does not happen as they still have 22'' on Group Burghardt on the last cobbled section.
Only 4km remaining now and Cancellara still does not help Burghardt. Not really understandable as they are only 19'' behind the front duo.
Only two kilometres before the finish Cancellara surpasses him in a last attempt to close the gap and when he does, the gap is down to 10 seconds with 1,5 km to go.
The sprint preparation began. Cancellara has to open the sprint for 3rd from the front with Breen on his wheel.
Upfront, it is Boonen who has to open the sprint from ahead of Bewley.
With 800m to go Boonen is still in the front but Bewley is still close.
But Bewley can't beat Boonen who takes the win here. Bewley defends his second place from last year.
Behind them, it is Breen who takes a shocking podium after outsprinting Cancellara who takes fourth and Rowe 5th. Burghardt is surely disappointed by a sixth place after all his efforts. Stallaert, Eeckhout and Zubov take the next places which is great for all of them.
Summerhill completes the top ten after outsprinting Blythe and Vanmarcke.
