Hello and welcome to the coverage of Geraardsbergen-Bosberg. We are in Belgium for what is the opening stages of the Northern Classics season. The riders have lined at the start and we're about to get underway.
The day's break consists of eight riders: Beukeboom Thomson Cabanas Torckler Rizheze Halvorsen Umerbekov Siskevicius
Umerbekov and Siskevicius are adept on the hills and the peloton need to be careful with the leeway they are provided.
Just 15 km in and riders are already being dropped. They did recover back to the pack after a few kilometers of chasing.
The break split up on the second pass of the cobbled hills. Thomson, Umerbekov, Beukeboom and Halvorsen were in the front group with Torckler chasing them on his own. Richeze, Siskevicius and Cabanas were in the third group on the road.
Torckler would eventually make it back to the front group while the lagging three were caught by the peloton.
Ngandamba suffered a puncture but didn't lose ground to the pack.
130 k to go now with the peloton 6'51" behind. Cerverica, Delvaux and Swisslion are the teams doing the work at the front. Rothaus were occasionally sending men to take a few turns.
The peloton started to pick up the pace from the fifth lap.
Machado was the first of favourites to in trouble with 85 km to go. He was helped back to the pack by his teammates.
75 km to go and four laps left. The break's lead is down to 2'55".
Abraha and Zhupa have attacked! That's a bold move from so far out.
Their time ahead of the pack lasted for 5 km before being caught. The peloton now has 99 riders in it.
55 km to go as Swisslion and Rothaus lead the peloton. The gap is up slightly to 3'5".
33 km left. Three breakaway riders have been dropped and caught by the peloton in the last cobbled section. Just Thomson and Halvorsen remain out in front.
The peloton has split up over the same section of cobbles and now the front group has only 39 riders. Vangenechten and Martinez are among the riders in the later group.
Breen attacks just 3 kilometers later!
Breen catches up to the break but the move doesn't last as all three are reeled by the chasing group.
The acceleration has caught out more riders as Taramarcaz's day looks to be done now.
Kluge and Zhupa attack! We're into the final 25 km. Ferreira and Breen are ones trying to bridge to them.
The four attackers are riding together now and increasing the gap to the pack.
Kaupas, Machado and Eeckhout are the riders dropped next. Those are some big names who look to be out of contention now.
The chase group is down 17 riders with 20 km to go. The gap to the front group is down from over a minute to 49".
And we have a split in the chase group with eight riders now forming the second group on the road. Sauber have the numbers advantage with four riders in the above mentioned group. The riders in the group are: Taubel, Veelers, Grand, Gatto Drucker Ngandamba Cominelli Kulppi
The situation behind them is as follows:
E3 -> Colon
E4 -> Eeckhout, Abraha, Naesen, De Bondt, Jacobs, Vandenbergh, Minoungou, Van der Haar, Kaupas, Thymides, Machado
Kluge attacks from the front with 17 km left.
Taubel has dropped his group mates and is chasing the three rider group behind Kluge.
Kulppi is dropped from the Drucker group.
Taubel catches the Ferreira group 2 km later. Kluge has pulled out to 41" lead.
Abraha, Van der Haar and De Bondt have caught to the Drucker group. They are still losing ground to those ahead.
With just 10 km remaining, Kluge has increase his lead further to 1'19". Even the traffic signal is giving him the green light for his attack!
4 km. The chase group is on the penultimate cobbled section. The gap to Kluge is down slightly.
The group behind has split again with Van der Haar, Abraha, Drucker and Grand forming E3, with De Bondt, Cominelli, Veelers, Ngandamba and Gatto forming E4.
Kluge reaches the Flamme Rouge and there's no one in sight behind him.
Van der Haar and Abraha have dropped Grant and Drucker. The group behind these two pairs has swelled to 12 riders.
Kluge makes it past a back-marker as he crosses the line to take a well deserved win. That was a decisive attack from a long way out but he never looked to be in trouble after that.
The next group did catch up in the closing stages.
Ferreira takes 2nd ahead of Zhupa and Breen.
Taubel could not keep up at the end and settles for 5th.
Van der Haar and Abraha are next past the line.
400 meters to go for Grand and Drucker. The next group have nearly caught up!
Kaupas looks to pass Drucker in the closing stages as they enter the final 100 meters.
Grand takes 8th with Drucker just about holding on to 9th ahead of Kaupas.
Gatto, Cominelli, Eeckhout, Ngandamba and Vandenbergh complete the top 15. De Bondt is 16th, followed by Veelers, Kulppi, Jacobs and Colon pips Naesen to 20th.
