Perfect weather for the inaugaral edition of this cobbled classic in Hungary. Baugnies and Vanspeybrouck as the top favorites on this partly hilly route. Less strong colmbers amongst the top cobblers (like Blythe or Zepuntke) will try to play their strength outside the maybe crucial climbs.
A first breakaway attempt by Peeters, Novardianto, Hsu and Agostini was shut down after a few kilometres. The next group with four riders went clear soon after and forms the break of the day:
Sirironnachai Ait El Abdia De Luna Planckaert
Halfway through the race, the group would hold on to a 3 minutes gap and teams like particularly Carlsberg and Minions would already lead the chase of the peloton.
A short moment of shock for Maes, who punctures with 52km to go! He's brought back to the peloton by his teammates then and it does seem, that he won't have lost too much energy in this situation.
30km remaining and the early break as already been caught! The top teams are in total control of the race and in addition to Carlsberg and Minions, also Kulczyk provides the pace setting in the main group, that has been reduced to 55 riders in the meantime. Several cobbles sectors have been ridden, but there's still a few to come!
Just 13.5km and two cobbles sectors to go. The main group kept going into pieces and now the first big attacks go:
Vanbilsen Theuns David Blythe Vanmarcke Maes Baugnies
are the first 7 riders trying to go clear from the group of riders, where Vanspeybrouck, Burghardt and Zepuntke may be those, who have the biggest pressure to react now!
11.5km and the last cobbles sector before the final cobbled climb:
Baugnies attacks from the leading group just when Vanspeybrouck managed to catch up! That's certainly a dangerous move and we already might have seen the crucial splits, too. Zepuntke/Schoonbroodt build a next chasing duo, that is 23 seconds behind group Blythe/Vanbilsen.. Burghardt/Gaday further 15 seconds in arrears..
8km to go and Baugnies established an 18 seconds gap on the first chasing group, where Zepuntke/Schoonbroodt managed to catch up in the meantime:
Gaday 42 seconds behind.. Burghardt further 45 seconds..
7km and Blythe goes clear from the first chasing group! The Brit is now just 13 seconds behind Baugnies..
15 seconds behind Blythe, the chasing group is down to just 6 riders with Blythe gone and Vanmarcke/Schoonbroodt being dropped now!
Blythe catches up to Baugnies 4km before the finish! A strong ride from Blythe, who distanced the first chasing group with Vanspeybrouck by 40 seconds in the meantime.
And this chasing group is down to just 4 riders now:
Theuns Vanspeybrouck Zepuntke David
Maes/Vanbilsen couldn't hang on, they are quickly behind by half a minute! Further 17 seconds in arrears, there's a group with Vanmarcke, Gaday and Schoonbroodt.. and then a bigger group with Burghardt, Nolf, Sinkeldam, Debesay as the biggest names.
Just 2km to go for the leading duo and now David attempts to bridge across the duo! He goes clear from group Vanspeybrouck, that does not seem to counter his move. Will the Kiwi manage to close the 29 seconds to Baugnies/Blythe?
David gains time on the leading duo, but he's still 16 seconds behind with now less than 500metres to go. The front groups have already entered the steep, but short climb up to the abbery.
Baugnies at the front of the race, Blythe may now try to go past him, if he can..
..he can't though: Baugnies keeps the prime position and takes the first edition of this race!
Blythe did well to join Baugnies inside the final 5km of the race, but he could not show a proper sprint on this steep slopes up to the finish. Still a nice result for the Brit, who's not amongst the best puncheurs of all cobblers here.
David crosses the line 34 seconds later, finishing as 3rd on the day. The Kiwi probably won't be unhappy with this podium result, even though he might have got a better result, if he had attacked the chasing group a few moments earlier.
Zepuntke goes past his group mates on the final few metres and brings home a strong 4th place eventually.
Theuns beats Vanspeybrouck to complete the Top-5. Vanspeybrouck hadn't the best day and he certainly won't be satisfied with a rather anonymous 6th place.
Gaday soloes to a solid 7th place, he had quite a good final sector here..
Maes 8th ahead of Schoonbroodt and Vanbilsen. Good result for Schoonbroodt, who did benefit from the hilly parcours.
Vanmarcke has to settle for an 11th place, totally exhausted..
Insausti finishes 12th ahead of Debesay, Sinkeldam and Harrison.. not the best result for Debesay, who might have hoped for something better on this parcours though.
Disappointing race for Burghardt (24th) and his team..
