246 kilometer of hills and cobbles. That said, the hills aren`t that long or steep, so it`s still flat rated.
Special on this course is the last kilometer, which is completely cobbled. So in case we will see a sprint finish, it will be on paves. Hopefully it keeps being sunny then.
3 riders in the morning break and actually already teammates by Steegmans, Veelers and Franzoi. De Baat Kosic Van Hummel
This keeps Carlsberg, Quickstep and Amex doing the pace behind. All of them send at least one rider to the front.
But with 140km and ~11min gap it`s surprisingly Team Hornbach supporting them. Obviously they are not too happy with De Baat in the break seeing his chances quite low against the other two.
Then we got several attacks. Not together though but one by one.
First it was Coyot with 138km to go. As seen last year the race suits him a lot and he seems to be confident that such a long attack is the best way.
20km later it`s a duo: Rojas Gil Lilholt
And last but not least Bush attacking with 106km to go.
All four are decent cobblers. Also interesting that 3 more favourite teams did send their co-leaders now.
So this basically means Quickstep should do a lot now to bring everything together. And apparently also Hornbach is not happier still chasing.
Also Gazelle and ASDA are seen at the front actually.
With 80km to go all recent attackers have reached the breakaway as the gap went down a lot. Only a bit more than 4min are left. But those new guys will surely speed them up.
More attacks. More teams included. Lee Takenouchi
on the way to the group in front.
They attacked with 77km to go when the gap was at 4min.
Now they have almost reached them 40km later.
But more important the gap is not getting smaller and still is a few minutes. Which basically means, that with almost all teams included in front the team leaders probably give away this classic and the co-leaders are going to fight for the win.
Nice attempt Veelers. With 30km and 5min behind he is attacking. Is it already for 10th?
Also Vanbilsen!!! finally for Quickstep, Franzoi, Breschel and Steegmans make their moves now ahead of Eisel and Ostergaard.
But the win clearly will come from this group of 7 as Takenouchi and Lee weren`t able to close the gap completely.
Meanwhile CSC have closed the gap behind to the last attackers.
Rojas Gil knows he can`t win in a sprint and attacks. But just like Kosic and Lilholt a bit later, he is caught again.
Bush in front of the group leading out Lilholt, Van Hummel and De Baat.
The other 3 are a bit behind.
No question. Van Hummel the best sprinter here and he goes into the lead with Lilholt behind him. Bush seems exhausted and only De Baat has a similar speed as the first two.
Well. Not as fast as Van Hummel to be honest. He clearly is the strongest here.
De Baat looks to be good for 2nd while Bush and Lilholt fight for the last podium.
Big win for the Dutch sprinter and nice for BelarusBank.
2nd indeed De Baat ahead of Bush, who keeps up the Amex podium dominance in those classics.
Lilholt as 4th ahead of Kosic, Coyot and Rojas Gil. Apparently the long solo ride by those cost them too much energy.
Takenouchi and Lee totally lost their speed in the end and so the peloton comes in with a 2min gap fighting for 8th.
And it`s Matti Breschel, last years winner to win that sprint. Steegmans 9th and then already the 3rd Amex rider with Eisel.
Big loser here Quickstep as they did not send their rider into the breakaway and then also did not really do a lot to bring them back. More or less it was only Hornbach chasing behind and all other teams rather slowed the pack down.
