Welcome to Belgium to see the chapter number 12512 of Sam Bewley dominance in the cobbles. The new route for this race is a very tough one, which could help riders as Van Avermaet or Trentin to use their better climbing abilities to outdo the New Zealand legend. But as any cobbled race, it’s Bewley’s to lose. Though we should never forget that he lost a few days ago a cobbled monument against Van Avermaet...
It’s a windy day, and since the moment that the start was given to the riders, a lot of riders attacked, with a 11-rider group staying ahead of the bunch for a while, until Evonik shut down the move, with riders as De Vos, Fritsch, Malacarne, Fonseca, Gjolberg, Korosec, Senyenov, Varga, Van Niekerk, Page and Archbold
Right before the first cobbled section of the day, which btw is very early in the race, 4 riders seems to finally get away from the peloton
Mraouni Varga Peeters Menten
The bunch is currently going through Kapelmuur with more than 100 kms to go, with the breakaway having a 4’30 gap to them. Some riders are starting to get dropped, given their inabilities in the cobbles, while Saya Kuroeda had a puncture before the Muur
60 kms left in the race when the riders are now in Paterberg. The group only contains around 90 riders now, while the breakaway still holds a 1’30 lead over the group where Moser has been working all day. Between the riders not in the main group anymore, Bakari, Lhotellerie and Lagab. The first one must be saving his efforts for Roubaix, but it’s surprising to see the two Aker riders already dropped. Probably an issue with being blocked in the last climbs, otherwise a very weak performance from the support core of Trentin today
Van Avermaet decides to allow a move from Moser riders after Paterberg, with Bewley having Cink and Polnicky with him, and Vanbilsen and Wisniowski joining them
Evonik could neutralise this move, but the high pace over Koppenberg made that a 20-rider group broke away from the main group, including 5 riders from Podium Ambition!
During the next kms, these group catches the breakaway, Spengler makes his way back into this group with a team-mate, while Podium Ambition and Moser lose riders, so the group now has 23 riders.
Mraouni and Schär are the latest riders to be dropped from the leading gruop, where Baugnies is putting some pace in Taaienberg. Strange decision, given there are other teams with more than 1 rider in this group, like Evonik or Moser
First move by Bewley at the top of Taaienberg! Only 10 riders can follow this acceleration from the reigning winner of the race, and neither of them are Vanbilsen! He was badly placed at the start of this muur, so he couldn’t follow thanks to rider being dead around him.
Vanbilsen would make it back after a couple of kms of chase, but he would be dropped again in a non-cobbled hill when Van Avermaet put an insane rhythm there, forcing a big selection of only 6 riders in contention for the win today.
Van Avermaet Bewley Trentin Baugnies Teunissen Wisniowski
The other 6 riders that were part of this leading group; Thomas, Burghardt, Polanc, Theuns, Altur and Vanbilsen, are now 30 seconds behind, but if Thomas or Burghardt sacrifise himself for the other they could still make it back to Bewley’s group
30 kms to go and the 6 riders that are still in the leading group will fight for the win today. Baugnies and Teunissen show a little weakness in the last climb, as they had a hard time following Bewley’s pace. The second group is already one minute behind, so they’ll have to fight for 7th place, unless someone ahead explodes really hard
And Baugnies can’t keep with the pace in Haaghoek, with 28 kms left in the race. It was too much for the Belgian, who now will have to pace himself to avoid getting caught by the next group
Burghardt and Vanbilsen have gotten rid of Polanc, Altur, Theuns and Thomas, and now they are going after Baugnies for that 6th place. His gap to him is only 40 seconds, while the gap to the first group is now almost 2 minutes
Bewley is going full gas in the penultimate cobbled section of the day, with still 20 kms to go, but it doesn’t look like any of his rivals are currently suffering with this pace. But this is a very long section, so we’ll see
But the fatigue catches up to Teunissen, who was the one following Bewley’s wheel, and just when the cobbled section was ending, Bewley got a little gap and attacked to make it a big one
Trentin and Wisniowski tried to go after Bewley, but the New Zealander is too strong, and these riders seems to have given up on the chase and will now fight for the second place between the beast
Bewley is in the final cobbled section, Paddestrat, and from there, only 9 kms left to the finish in Zottegem. His gap has grown to almost 1’30 in just a few kms, but in the group behind are saving energies for the second place sprint, which has allowed Teunissen to stay with them
The chasing group has exited Paddestrat with a 1’50 deficit to Bewley, and Van Avermaet, Trentin, Wisniowski and Teunissen will now have to think how to get the second place. Van Avermaet is the fastest, though Wisniowski could try an attack in the flat before the sprint. Teunissen instead might be praying for slow rhythm just to stay with them until the end
And Sam Bewley wins in Zottegem his second E3 Prijs in two years! It’s not a surprise obviously, but is yet another win in a cobbled classic for the Moser rider
Extremely close sprint between Van Avermaet and Trentin for the second place, but despite the Italian better finish, Van Avermaet won the battle in the photo-finish
Wisniowski gets fourth place ahead of Teunissen, who couldn’t even sprint, which shows how tired he was
Baugnies crosses the line calmly to take 6th place, despite Burghardt and Vanbilsen were sprinting fast behind him, though neither of them could challenge him for his position
Theuns wins the sprint for the ninth place, ahead of a surprising Kuroeda, who appeared from nowhere in the final part of the race, after being affected by a puncture some kms before the race exploded, with Thomas 11th, Altur 12th and Polanc 13th.
Joseph was finally caught by the next group after being around 30 kms alone, with Saber and Gaday sprinting for the last Top15 places, ahead of Tsatevitch, Langeveld and Matthews, with Joseph closing this group. And the final Top20 place was for Van der Poel
Only around 110 riders finished within time limit today, a really tough course, with the wind, the hills and the cobbles made a really hard race for all those riders that were here just for XP reasons and as a punishment for not being good enough to choose their own schedule
