The break of the day forms early and it has four riders - Trondsen, Jansen, Edmondson and Fejes. The latter breaks up the -sen/-son dominance in the break!
With 150 km to go, the break have pulled out to a 7'40" lead.
Four or five teams are sharing the pace-making in the pack.
A further 50 km on, the break's lead is down to 4'44" with Tinkoff, Evonik, Vesuvio, Isostar and Festina shared duties so far.
70 km to go now for the break who are still working well together. Their gap on the pack is ever-decreasing however. Down to just 3 minutes now.
Isostar have taken control of the peloton...
...and with 40 km to go, it is Pavlic at the front for the Slovenians. They are getting help from Evonik and Vesuvio in chasing down the break, whose lead is down to 1'39".
Surprisingly, only 8 riders have been dropped so far despite the fast chase.
Edmondson is dropped from the break 6 km later. He is quickly swallowed up by the peloton.
Pavlic is still at the front and now there is a split with 95 riders remaining in the front group.
The break remain defiant as we enter the final 25 km. The gap is 40". The peloton can see them on the lower slopes now.
And it's game over for the break with 21 km remaining.
There is a decisive split in the pack with 64 riders in the second group. Vanendert, Buchmann, Watson and Valls are among those caught on the wrong side.
Vakoc accelerates with 18 km to go. Chernetskiy and Demare are the fastest to react. The rest of the group try to close them down.
Fast forward 5 km. The pace has dropped in the front group. Spilak is sitting in the final positions in the group but he does have teammates around him.
Gastauer leads the 25 man group into the final 10 kilometers. Spilak has gone even further back, hidden from view in this picture behind the motorbike.
5 km left. The group has shed two riders. Incredible scenes here as Skujins, Koretzky and Chernetskiy are all sitting in the last few positions alongside Spilak. What kind of twisted end-of-race discussion are they having I wonder! Isostar still continue to set the pace with Wyss and Kump.
2.5 km. Koretzky has got onto teammate Kastrantas's wheel. Skujins, Spilak and Chernetskiy have improved their positions but it's still not ideal.
Koretzky is on the right wheel but he is boxed in as we enter the final 2 kilometers. Wyss is leading out Kump now as Skujins has managed to get into a great position. Demare is there too, having done a lot less work in trying to get into position.
1500 meters. Borges has come up alongside Demare now. Koretzky is basically trapped behind the Isostar pair in the front row, with Spilak trapped behind the Lierse duo of Gaviria and Waeytens.
Skujins goes around the bend with Demare and Borges in tow, Koretzky is still caught behind the Isostar screen with Spilak now trying to wriggle through on the inside.
Koretzky is finally free as we enter the final kilometer. Spilak is still waiting to start his sprint. Gaviria is there but Waeytens has lost his wheel. Slagter is looking to come up from around 12th position.
Skujins leads as they take the penultimate bend. The top two have a gap now, with the next two getting a gap to the larger group as well. Kulczyk and Lierse giving a good account of themselves as wildcard teams, with both having riders in the group.
500 meters to go for our two leaders as the riders in the chase group now start their final acceleration. Surely, there isn't enough road left for any of them to catch the others in front now.
And they're sprinting for the win at the front! Skujins accelerates first but Demare is attentive and responds in kind.
Skujins makes the mistake of going wide on the turn and Demare breezes through on the shorter inside line and takes the lead. Behind them, Koretzky makes the exact same move on Borges.
Demare holds the lead as we head into the final 200 meters. Koretzky, out of picture, does the same.
And Demare takes a famous win in Luxembourg, narrowly edging out Skujins who has to settle for 2nd.
Koretzky holds off Borges for 3rd while Spilak's late burst is not enough to catch the Porto-Prio rider, with the latter repeating last year's result.
Gvairia takes an impressive 6th, ahead of Barbin, Kump and the celebrating Mager in 9th. A lot of credit for Demare's win has to go to his teammate as well, for keeping him out of trouble and getting him into a good position without any hassle on the final climb to the finish.
Waeytens wraps up the top 10 to mark a brilliant showing from Lierse. Arndt, Slagter, Dall'Oste, Chernetskiy and Formolo round out the top 15.
