Welcome to the Veenendaal - Veenendaal, formerly known as Dutch Food Valley Classic. A flat, but partly tricky parcours and the roleurs will love the fact, that we have crosswinds up to 35kmh today.
The top sprinters should be the favorites nevertheless and so there's some pressure on Degenkolb, Ewan, defend race champion Cavendish or Guerao to deliver a big result in this HC race. Strong roleurs such as Lander or Rowe may hope to upset the very best sprinters and of course the same goes for less strong sprinters like Ji, Baugnies or Vanbilsen.
Several riders also trying to form the break of the day, but the first few attempts do not go far:
#1 - N Hamilton, Avetisyon, Sanogo, Costa
#2 - Costa, Eriksson, Orlov, Piccoli, Takenouchi, Vincent, Bravo
#3 - Bravo, Takenouchi, Orlov, Vincent, Fominykh, Vlasov
#4 - De Haes, Vlasov, Durbridge, Kaczmarek, Petrus
The next attempt by five riders is finally allowed to stay clear though:
De Haes Kaczmarek Takenouchi Pranata Sanogo
Halfway through the race, we see the teams, that will work for their sprinters today:
Delvaux, Podium, SPAR and also Iberia (at times) showing their colors in the chase of the early break, that is 3'53" ahead with now still 83km to go and the winds still up 37kmh at this point..
The field has now entered the finishing circuit, that has to be ridden a few times though: 37.5km to the finish, the early break leads by 1'41" and we see the next moves from outside the peloton!
Østergaard tries to go clear!
He couldn't though and with now teams like Iberia and Kraftwerk leading the chase, the early breakaway's advantage is down to 58 seconds with 26km to go..
Varga attacks at the same place where Ostergaard tried to go clear, just one lap later!
The current pace and crosswinds (40kmh) make for a major split in the pack, just a few notable names dropped though:
Boivin Te Brake
Kvist, who simply punctured in the worst moment!
Also Varga could not stay clear from the chasing peloton, that has not yet caught up to the early break though: 17km to go and the escaping group is still 50 seconds ahead!
Kraftwerk and Iberia still as those teams leading the pack and Baugnies is the next rider to attack!
Opposing to the other two attackers, Baugnies manages to bridge across the leading group, that is about a minute ahead of the peloton with now 15km remaining!
Three more riders attempt to join the leading group:
Vanbilsen Hermans Vanspeybrouck
They actually did, but the peloton raised the pace for another time:
Brockhoff and Gallego Martin prove to be reliable in this challenging race so far and Iberia finally looks in control of the race with now 10km to go and all escapees being swallowd by the pack (68 riders)! Neither Baugnies nor group Vanbilsen could stay clear..
5.5km before the finish and just when the race settled down, we see the next attack:
Hermans goes again!
Iberia now struggling to react and so Hermans rode to a 30 seconds advantage with now just 3km to the finish!
The hectic race does not allow sprint trains to be formed, but positioning will be a key factor from now on. Let's have a look at those riders, who are the front of the peloton:
1.8km to go for the peloton, that is still 37 seconds behind Hermans!
Ji in the leading positon now, with Bennett right behind him!
Rowe/Guarnieri/Serebriakov/Degenkolb/Goss/Cav building a train with Vanderbiest, Castaneda right behind them..
Ewan not looking too good, but Saber is catching up with Drapac at his wheel!
Østergaard also moving forward again, just like Vanspeybrouck a few positions further behind!
Hermans though too far away and he's approaching the finish with still a rather big gap on those others..
Yap, the win will go to Hermans and now the sprint for the podium has been kicked off:
Ji and Maes still in the mix, but struggling against those sprinters now..
Bennett, Serebriakov ahead of Degenkolb, Ostergaard, Vanderbiest.. Guarnieri lost his good position, just like Rowe!
Guerao finally moving forward with some great speed.. Cav still behind Rowe..
Hermans celebrates his victory! Those races with crosswinds are just made for him and his attack from 5km outside the finish proved to be the decisive move today. Congratulations!
Serebriakov stronger than Bennett, but Degenkolb is coming closer on the final few hundres metres!
Guarnieri also looking better now, Vanderbiest and now Goss with a small advantage though..
Guerao ahead of Rowe, Vanspeybrouck (Ostergaard collapsed) and Cavendish, who's boxed in though!
Degenkolb easily going clear from Serebriakov, who now has to hold off Guarnieri, Goss and Vanderbiest!
Bennett still ahead of Rowe, Cav and Guearo, but significally losing speed now.. Castaneda, Ewan, Vanspeybrouck, Maes, Saber, Drapac and Ji on the further positions..
Degenkolb easily sprinting to a 2nd place! Not exactly the win, he was aiming for - but still a strong sprint and a solid podium..
A narrow decision for the final podium spot then:
Guarnieri takes 3rd ahead of Goss and Vanderbiest!
Rowe with a pretty good 6th place ahead of Serebriakov, who dropped a few places on those final couple of hundred metres..
Guerao 8th ahad of Cavendish and Castañeda! Not the best sprint from Cavendish and also Guerao can't be happy eventually. After missing out on a good position early into the sprint, he looked good for a while, but could not fight for a Top-5 result anyway..
Maes (11th) and Ji (15th) add some nice points for Indosat..
Vanspeybrouck with a rather surprising 12th place after his earlier attack did not work!
Bennett has to settle for a 13th place ahead of a disappointing Ewan.. also Saber can't be entirely happy with a 16th place ahead of Ostergaard, Langeveld, Drapac and Vanbilsen. Lander (21st), Stauff (22nd) and Moser (26th) with no Top-20 results then.
