A hard hard race to wrap up the cobbles for the season. We will be heading into the last day of the season tomorrow, and many questions are still to be answered for a lot of the teams in this race. Who can ease some of heir worries? And who can push themselves one step closer to a promotion? The next five hours will have those answers.
30 km/ hr winds blowing today, not too much to have a massive effect on the race.
Three riders form the break:
Novardianto Wurtz Kiflay
Wyss retires after the first cobbles section. He's not crashed, so it must be a health issue.
Huge disappointment for Lierse already. Vanbilsen went down on his own and can't continue because of his injuries. They sent a man back to pace him to the pack but it's moot now.
Yechezkel crashes too! But he's luckier and is able to continue.
120 km to go. Riders have been dropped by the peloton already.
Naesen and Grashev attack from the pack with 100 km to go.
Even more riders can't hang on to the peloton. 115 riders left in the pack now.
Svab stops and gets into the team car now. His race is over.
The five man break are together now with a 3'38" lead to the peloton. 80 km left.
Daniel is dropped from the pack 10 km later. His team are back helping him.
And now Wisniowski is dropped! Some riders are finding it very hard on the road today. He has two teammates with him. Not that it has helped Daniel yet, he is in the next group now.
Wurtz and Kiflay have been dropped from the break and are about to be picked up by the peloton.
Lierse's day gets worse! Peeters retires.
50 km to go. The peloton are down to 64 riders. Podium Ambition and Isostar sharing pace-making duties. The remaining three man break have a 2'52" lead to the pack.
The peloton splits further with 40 km to go. Just 28 riders remain in the first chase group now.
Owen, Harrison, Lindeman, Backaert, Armee, Van Poppel, Cominelli, Kulppi, Arissol, Vandenbergh and Flaksis are the riders dropped recently.
Novardianto is dropped from the break 5 km later. They are lapping riders now.
Tsatevich is dropped from the pack. It is getting a little confusing with all the back-markers mixing with our peloton.
Novardianto is caught by the lead group...
..who split again with 32 km to go. The situation now is as follows:
The situation stabilized over the next few kilometers.
6 km to go for the first group. Debesay has closed in but he still trails the top 3 by 41".
Behind them, Bush and De Maar have joined the Altur group.
We're on the last cobbled section now. 2.5 km to go. Teunissen has dropped his group-mates, caught and dropped Debesay and nearly caught the leading trio, all in the last 3 kms. Things suddenly looking very good for Generali!
1.5 km. Theuns is tired and can't hang on. Teunissen has not been able to make up the gap either.
700 meters to go. Teunissen has caught and passed his teammate Theuns to move into the third. It's an uphill slog on the cobbles to the finish for our leaders.
Polanc powers ahead of Burghardt as we enter the final 500 meters. Theuns is dropped and won't be contesting for the win.
300 meters. It looks like Polanc went too early and has now run out of steam. Burghardt retakes the lead. Teunissen is also on his last legs, and has been distanced.
Burghardt wins! After a less than successful season, he finishes it off in the best way possible. Polanc takes 2nd place. Perhaps his youthful exuberance cost him with the early acceleration on that inclined cobbled finish. More to come from him in the future surely.
Teunissen and Theuns make it a 3-4 for Generali.
Naesen with an impressive ride from the late break to finish 5th. Kamyshev, in 6th, is sandwiched between two breakaway riders, as Grashev takes 7th place.
Debesay lost ground in the final two kilometers and ends up 8th.
Altur and Puccio complete the top 10.
Nolf and Fouquet lead the peloton across the line.
Today's winner - Marcus Burghardt.
Just 109 finishers today!
Huge results for Podium Ambition and Minions as their PCT safety looks further secured now. Huge results for Isostar and Orange as well, at the top of the PCT. Generali do much better than they have in recent outings. Despite Altur's 9th place, Newton lose ground on Orange in the promotion race. The latter have climbed closer to the fifth and final automatic promotion spot with this result. Fouquet is the best of the CT.
