Welcome to Herning for the 6th edition of the Grand Prix Herning, it's wet and windy which should mean crashes and mild crosswinds respectively.
It takes until just before the first 10km cobbled sector for the break to go, in there are Owen Katrasnik Biondo Archbold Paajanen Mraouni
A combination of the conditions causing crashes and punctures and the work of Strava and Azteca batter the field, out of the first cobbled sector and it's only 80 riders left.
60km to go and Azteca are hammering it now, the pack is just 60-strong and here we see Owen wants the honour of last man standing, his gap is just 30 seconds.
Bush is down in a crash! His teammates are dropping back to help him, now the question is how badly is he hurt and can they chase back on? Meanwhile from that crash Drucker has to abandon.
What's going on here? Instead of letting Strava burn their matches the ultimate favorite Danny Summerhill dictates tempo, splitting the field to 32 riders and catching Owen with 32km to go.
Here comes the Sum! Summerhill attacks, now Langeveld is trying furiously to shut the gap while his leader Baugnies and Lierse's Vanbilsen, among others, bide their time.
False dawn or cool bluff? We see from the onboard camera of Grashev: Langeveld has reeled in Summerhill and so it's a pack of 25 with the same number of km's to go.
Summerhill again now, you really can't keep the American down! No immediate response, Cancellara leads the chase, shelling his teammate Sibilla in the process.
15km left to go for Summerhill and he's got 20 seconds still.
He's caught! Now how much has this taken out of Summerhill, and indeed the chasers, notably Cancellara, Langeveld and Thomas?
The penultimate sector and no prizes for guessing what happens: Summerhill goes, Zepuntke, Maes and Cancellara try to follow.
Under the 10km banner Zepuntke makes the catch, this attack has mae the group just 21 riders now.
After a whole race of waiting behind his excellent teammates it's time for Baugnies to have a crack. Zepuntke and Summerhill are again involved. No dice though as everyone follows, there's but one sector left to make a difference now.
Last cobbled sector and if you guessed wrong you've just skipped to this bit: Summerhill attacks, this one gets a gap and he's joined by Thomas, with just 6.5km to go they have 12 seconds. Groups form and the situation is:
5.5km Remaining
P
<22”>
E3
<15”>
E2
<12”>
E1
Breschel
Zepuntke
Baugnies
Summerhill
Joseph
Franzoi
Cancellara
Thomas
Nepo
Bush
Teunissen
Daniel
Vanbilsen
Wisniowski
Maes
Taubel
Langeveld
Taillefour
Theuns
Sibilla
Hristov
Gaudin
Grashev
4.5km to go and the groups have merged and the rain is back, meaning it's 11v11 now, just not like a football game because there's so many teams on both sides.
Nobody wants to lead anyone out and so it's all spread out with 3km until the line, the leaders have 1'49 to the chasing group so we'll see a tactical finale.
I think Langeveld has mistook Summerhill for his leader Baugnies, placing him in prime position, just 2km to go now.
Almost under the flamme rouge, or flamme bleu more accurately, and no changes. Langeveld - Summerhill - Thomas - Vanbilsen - Zepuntke - Cancellara near the front.
Langeveld, Thomas and Vanbilsen launch, everyone else biding their time - Summerhill has prime position, but does he have the legs after all that attacking? Thomas surely on paper the favourite now.
500m to go and Langeveld's launching, Vanbilsen's still coming, Summerhill is launching and Thomas is winning.
The winner is clear - Thomas far too fast for Vanbilsen, whilst Langeveld and Summerhill were too early and late respectively. All in all a bloody tough one, under half th riders finished, just 62 in total.
