Rainy conditions for the third and penultimate stage of the KBC De Panne. It's short and flat and it'll be interesting how the peloton judges the break - so far this season the break has the edge here. We should see a GC truce before the TT, however having made no use of his chance yesterday it's the last opportunity for points leader Summerhill to set himself up for the win.
Katrasnik Taubel Naesen Ariesen (who takes an uncontested "sprint" and Nurmi are today's break.
Sprinter teams Lierse and Netia patrol alonsgide GC leaders Strava. 70km to go and 5'33" is the gap
60km and 6'45" - Taubel is provisionally 8th on GC at 5'17" down!
50km and 7'05" - Taubel is 7th and Naesen is 13th overall
40km and with a gap of 6'56" it's apparent one of the five breakaway riders will take the stage - now it's about the minor GC ambush of Taubel and Naesen.
Alliances Brewing?
Onboard Cameras: Gaudin fights for his GC spot and the white jersey sits pretty
The gap falls: 20km and 4'00"
Chasing Like Madmen: 15km and 1'30" The break better be careful!
Onboard Cameras: 7km and 57'
With 4km to go the break has just 40 seconds - Taubel still fighting for a second consecutive stage for Wiesenhof
3.6km to go (Peloton)
Vermote
Pozdnyakov
Bernas
Serebriakov
Hagen
Kip
Mørkøv
Gaviria
Peeters
Vantomme
Reckweg
Corioni
Theuns
Thomas
Colbrelli
Schorn
De Backer
Van Asbroeck
Naesen and Nurmi are in pursuit of Taubel, but launching their sprint now with 2500m to go still is a bit early.
Naesen puts a bike length between him and his rivals, but he's facing 2km in the wind.
Armchair Ride
Nurmi is perhaps stupidly waiting for his turn to launch, giving a tired Taubel no choice but to try and bridge the gap.
Kip launches in a desperate move to shut the gap (to his teammate, selfish git), the pack has 1.2km to go whilst...
Katrasnik and Ariesen try to fend off the peloton...
and Naesen has a huge gap with just 500m left!
On the front of the pack all but 13km of yesterday - now he's at the front of the race all the way to the line!
It's been said that whomever round the final corner in front will win here and it's true - Naesen exhausted but with ample time to celebrate! as fresh Nurmi overhauls the rule to take 2nd against Taubel.
Van Asbroeck from literally nowhere breaks the heart of Katrasnik and Ariesen - he gets the 3/3 bunch sprint record for this year's race! They settle for 6th and 7th respectively as Thomas rounds out the top 5 - Vantomme is 8th despite his sprint train's effort and Nepomnyachsniy and Haidar Anuawar round out this top 10. No GC gaps means the title of Baugnies is all but assured.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
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