An absolutely glorious day awaits us in Charleroi as we get ready to flag off the second of the Ardennes classics. The field is stacked and we have to consider anywhere between 12 and 15 riders as a potential race winner today. A light wind is blowing and it should not be strong enough to cause problems for the riders.
After a total of six unsuccessful attempts, three riders get a gap on the peloton and make it stick. They are Calmejane, Canty and Alaphilippe.
Turik then attacks and is successful in bridging the gap to the trio ahead. This is the final break of the day.
The race remains uneventful following the break.
At the halfway mark, we see a semblance of an organization starting to happen in the pack. Senyenov lead them on, but he is being supported by Sulimov and Gusev. Both teams will be hoping that their leader is up for challenging for the win today. The break's lead is 5'5".
60 km left. The break's lead is down to 2'51".
There is a fall at the back involving Paulus and Gougeard. Our cameras miss the crash itself but here they are making their way back to the peloton. They eventually make it.
The break is now climbing the Mur for the second time. Their lead is now 1'28".
Turik attacks in the hope of going solo. The move is not successful. 38 km to go now.
Strava, Vesuvio, Evonik, Puma and Aegon have all put riders at the front. Some riders have been dropped but none of the big names are in trouble.
The break is climbing the Cote d'Ereffe. Their lead is down to just 55". The peloton is visible to them on the lower slopes.
18 km to go. Turik and Alaphilippe drop the others.
Back in the pack, Ponzi, Bakelants and Trofimov attack. Skuijns tries to counter.
Gastauer and de Bie jump onto Skuijns's wheel and they reach the attackers. They catch Turik and Alaphilippe. The gap to the pack is 31".
The peloton is being led by Gazelle for Ginanni.
The peloton comes back together with 14 km left. There are still 113 riders left.
2 km later, Trofimov accelerates and 10 riders follow the attack to create a gap to the pack. The riders in this group are: Trofimov Ponzi Skuijns Gastauer Bakelants de Bie Ginanni Sagan Bobridge Lutsenko Kelderman
McCarthy, Beltran, Koretzky, Chernetskiy, Vakoc, Boswell and Kwiatkowski are in the peloton, trailing by 37".
We reach the base of the final ascent of the Mur, and despite its large numbers, the peloton still trail the eleven man leading group by 25".
The leaders fall in line as they climb the Mur. The order is as follows: Bakelants - Kelderman - Trofimov - Ginanni - Sagan - Ponzi - Skuijns - Gastauer - de Bie - Lutsenko - Bobridge.
The peloton have nearly caught back up to the lead group. Kwiatkowski and Boswell are leading the charge.
1.2 km left for the leaders now. The only change from the previous order is that Ginanni is now in third position, ahead of Trofimov. Everyone else remains in formation.
700 meters. The first five riders, Bakelants, Kelderman, Ginanni, Trofimov and Sagan, are starting to get a gap to the rest of the train. Ginanni is trying to move past Kelderman.
Kwiatkowski, Bilbao and Boswell have latched on to the back of the train. Jensen is also there but he looks tired. So does Boswell, in fact.
The next group sees Beltran, Koretzky, McCarthy, Vakoc and Demare probably already cursing themselves for not anticipating the moment of the attack.
400 meters. This is the view from Skuijns as the sprint starts among the five riders in the lead. Bakelants is fading a bit on the left.
Skuijns is now leading the next group from which Jensen has been dropped. In the background we can see Beltran, Waeytens and Borges (Porto-Prio) have got a gap to the peloton.
Trofimov and Sagan are dropped! We know who will be standing on the podium. Just a question of finding out their positions now. 200 meters more. Ginanni's sprint seems to have quite the punch!
And Ginanni it is! His acceleration had enough juice to hold off a late-charging Bakelants, who takes 2nd. Kelderman follows up his win here last year with a 3rd place this time.
Trofimov holds on to take 4th ahead of Sagan. Both of them look dead tired.
Skuijns is the strongest in the next group, taking 6th with Bobridge 7th.
Bilbao has had a storming last kilometer and takes 8th. At first glance, I thought the Hugo rider was Ponzi! de Bie pips Lutsenko to 9th in the photo finish.
Kwiatkowski is the best of the wildcards in 11th, ahead of Boswell, Gastauer and Ponzi.
Jensen hangs on for a good 15th place.
Beltran holds off Waeytens and Borges (Porto-Prio) for 16th.
Dyrnes launches a sprint to take 19th ahead of the pack.
Siskevicius heads the peloton home to round out the top 20.
