Hello and welcome to the National Championships of Belgium, raced over a hilly parcours. Jan Bakelants as the top favourite, but Sean De Bie in particular, as well as Dimitri Claeys and Zico Waeytens will feel they have a chance to claim the famous Belgian tricolour jersey for next year.
After a long fight amongst the amateurs for the breakaway Lierse put a stop to it by sending the comparatively much stronger Biermans up the road who forces a move. He brought three amateurs with him but as coverage starts now with 45km only one can still follow.
On the finale climb the now-solo Biermans still has 1'30 advantage as Bakelants strikes first! Nobody willing to try and get the drop on the Grieg leader, and right now only De Bie can follow closely as Waeytens and Wellens among others also look to respond! No sign of Claeys anywhere.
Biermans is quickly passed as Bakelants relentlessly tries to shake De Bie for a kilometre or two - now they're both very tired, and both still together as we near the top of this final climb.
Serry has rode well here and looks like the best of the rest but is still around about 8 seconds behind the leading duo as Bakelants leads De Bie towards the flamme rouge! The Grieg man is the probable favourite from a sprint but De Bie is no slouch in a fast finish either!
In the sprint De Bie has a slight edge but is running out of road with 400m left to overtake Bakelants!
And indeed it's Jan Bakelants who takes victory here and is your new Belgian Champion! A great ride well finished from the 32-year-old. A tough pill to swallow for De Die even though he was not the favourite, whilst Serry did well to come third in a big-name field.
The time trial should be a straightforward affair with reigning champ Cornu of Euskaltel the outstanding favourite. However if he suffers an off-day, or someone else has the ride of their life times two, then Campanaerts and Frison are the main alternatives.
Stage racer Wellens with the time to beat early on which will serve as a good benchmark of anybody with top 5 aspirations. 1h08'41
It's clearly between the last four riders on the road. Welle Jallays overtakes Wellens at all checks, the first man to do so. He loses ground in the final section, but edges out the Volvo climber by a single second!
Frederik Frison is next and one-ups the Fablok rider, coming in with a time of 1h07'05, 1'35 faster than Jallays.
However his bum won't get to grace the hot seat, as Campanaerts beats him by a slender four seconds!
And neither will the Volvo rider, as for the third time in quick succession, there's a new leader. And as the last rider on the road, it's the final one. Dominique Cornu defends the jersey on his back with a great time of 1h06'24, 36 seconds ahead of Campanaerts.
