The CT's cobbles season kicks off with Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, that comes with a new profile this year: more cobbles (22km in total) and so the best cobblers may fancy their chances over the sprinters, who used to do well here in some previous editions. Kluge as the top favorite in any case, since he's the best allrounder of all participants here. Drucker, Zhupa, Breen as other fast finishing favorites and of course there's Ferreira as another very promising victory aspirant.
Several early breakaway attempts are pulled back by the peloton. Let's have a look at the names:
#1: Morales, Anderson, Jorgensen, Stewart, Sonikwathi, Dewulf
#2: Buchovsky, Park, Sonikwathi, Biermans
#3: Major, Park, Poljanec, M Velits
#4: Park, Poljanec, M Velits, Major, G Per, Antonijevic
..and four of those last riders will eventually make it to break of the day - accompanied by two more attackers, who are now 2'38" ahead of the pack with 149km to go:
Major Poljanec Per Velits Kal Piccoli
The breakaway's gap would peak at 5 minutes before the peloton started to raise the pace with about 100km remaining: teams like Cerveceria, Rothaus and GCN as the most active squads so far.
61km to go now and the breakaway is 3 minutes ahead of the bunch, where we see the next attack:
Aulas tries to go clear with an explosive punch!
Coronel and Batmunkh with a double team-attack to quickly jump behind Aulas, who's already 50 seconds ahead of the peloton soon after he broke clear. The pack seems to allow this trio trying to bridge across the early break!
Yes, they do: 44km before the finish, Coronol/Batmunkh and Aulas have caught up to the leading group (9 riders now) and they hold on to a 2'52" advantage on the peloton, that hasn't really respond on the latest attacks yet.
The already mentioned teams (Cerveceria and GCN as still the most prominent colours at the front of the pack) do keep up with a steady pace over all those short cobbles sectors in the final quarter of the race:
24km to go now and the leading group is just a minute ahead of the pack..
Minoungou as the main pace setter in the pack at this point and with now less than 20km to go, the peloton has caught the first five escapees with just four riders holding on to a 54 seconds gap on the bunch (64 riders):
Poljanec Per Coronel Batmunkh
No more attacks until 10km to the finish, but GCN and also Cerveceria keep pulling the strings to catch those escapees:
Poljanec is the last man standing at the front of the race, his lead is down to just 16 seconds though. Quite an effort from the early escapee, who managed to drop Coronel/Batmunkh (and also Aulas even earlier on) with his fight to stay clear..
..but just like his eight former breakaway companions, he does not stand a chance eventually. With now just 6.6km to go and the final cobbles sector ridden, all escapees have been reeled in and surprisingly, we did not see a single attack since the trio bridged across the early break!
Cominelli setting the pace now and despite the rather slow tempo at this point, the pack has been reduced to 48 riders. Anyway, with just a few kilometres of flat roads ahead, it seems that we will see yet another bunch sprint decision at the K-B-k!
There's some drama though: Ferreira has been dropped from the main group! He punctured on the last cobbles sector of the day and that's certainly the worst moment to lose contact..
.. Vandenbergh quickly drops back to support his captain, who only has 6.6km to re-join the peloton!
The slow pace plays into his cards though and with now 3.5km remaining and still no one showing any interest to animate the race, Ferreira is back at the front of the peloton already! He may spend some beers to other teams tonight..
Swisslion now joining GCN and Cerveceria at the front.. that's some kind of a sprint preparation?
Well, kind of.. 2.4km left and the pace is still too slow to call it a proper sprint preparation.. positioning will be they key for any success from now on and that's quite good news for the already mentioned teams, who have a few riders at the very front of the pack (51 riders):
Cominelli
Salas
Thymides
Kluge
Poljanec
Ngandamba
Zhupa
Vandenbergh
Jacobs
Ferreira
Hugentobler
Verbist
Drucker
Grand
Yechezekel
Verhelst
Breen
Gatto
Kulppi
Joseph
Taubel
Kurth
Bagdonas
Machado
Cerveceria kicking the late sprint off then: Kluge vs Thymides may already be the fight for line honours!
Ngandamba in the most promising position behind Salas/Cominelli.. Poljanec/Zhupa ahead of Drucker.. Ferreira/Vandenbergh ahead of Sauber's armada.. Breen kinda boxed in now!
Kluge head-to-head with a strong Thymides..
Kluge now with the better speed though! He's going strong towards the victory..
Ngandamba now going past Salas/Cominelli.. Drucker still trying to find a way between Zhupa/Poljanec and the barriers.. Breen right behind him..
Gatto is going past Ferreira/Vandenbergh..
..but he cracks soon after!
Kluge takes the win in the meantime! Quite a comfortable victory eventually and even though the race itself must be considered a disappointing race from a neutral point of view, Kluge will be happy enough with his team providing him this bunch sprint from a premium position at the front of the group..
Thymides with still a great 2nd place then, easily holding off the final podium finisher..
..that is Ngandamba! Obviously a great result for him, too.
Drucker eventually made it past Zhupa and sprints to his second consecutive 4th place at the K-B-K! Not a bad result, obviously, but given his speed, he surely won't be happy to miss out on the podium..
Breen completes the Top-5, as he did benefit from Drucker's wheel here. A solid result, but as for many other pre-race favorites, his tactics might be questioned..
Poljanec and Zhupa completing a fantastic result for Swisslion as 6th and 7th.. the same goes for Salas and Cominelli as 8th and 11th to back up Kluge's victory with further points!
Ferreira 9th ahead of Verbist and Gatto eventually has to settle for a 12th place ahead of Terasaki, Joseph and Kurth. Disappointing results for several strong cobblers, who simply did not make it a good race today: Jacobs, Machado, Taubel, Kulppi.. they all miss out on a Top-15 or Top-20 result. That's at least some good news for Ferreira afterall, who came back strong after his late puncture and at least secured himself a low Top-10 result. Still, not good enough though.
The first of more to come? Kluge lived up to his role as the top-favorite today.
