An absolutely brutal day in the saddle awaits the riders here in Hungary.
8 riders form the break of the day: Abelouache, Bernal, Budding, Kal, Arashiro, Dockx, Davison and Berger.
As the break reaches the first cobbled section with 105km to go, Baugnies punctures in the peloton. His team soon bring him back however.
Up front the same fate befalls Arashiro, dropping him from the break.
As we reach the second cobbled section Rowe tries to bridge to the break, catching Arashiro with ease.
He soon reaches the rest of the break, from which Dockx has been dropped. He’s joined behind by a group of 6 attackers: Bolivar, Flaksis, Gaudin, Grand, Langeveld and Marcos - while Joseph and Bush are also trying to bridge.
The two groups merge on the third cobbled section, with Davison and Berger dropped. Archimandritis, Van der Haar and Kosic are also chasing.
We have a shock in the peloton though, which is now down to 63 riders - and Stallaert is not one of them! We’ll have to see if he can make it back with 80km remaining.
10 riders remain up front as we cross the fourth set of cobbles with 72km to go. Bush, Joseph, Bolivar, Flaksis, Rowe, Gaudin, Grand, Langeveld, Marcos and Kal have 43 seconds to Archimandritis, and 48 seconds to Van der Haar, Abelouache and Budding. Bernal, Naud, Kluge, Kosic and Davison are in no-man’s land, with the peloton (87 riders including Stallaert) at 2’59.
Bush, Rowe, Langeveld and Marcos are dropped on the 5th cobbled section.
The 6th cobbled section with 52km to go has no effect on the break, but it does cause another split in the pack - Albert, Laporte and Breen joining the list of those riders dropped. Only 36 riders remain in the peloton, 2’06 behind the break.
44km to go, and the 7th section of cobbles drops Joseph and Kal. But behind, it has an even greater effect!
Vanspeybrouck attacks, and quickly gains 35 seconds on a group containing Summerhill, Sinkeldam, both Kuroeda brothers, Ferreira, Van der Velde and Kireva. All the other favourites are 1’08 behind Vanspeybrouck except for Vanbilsen, who has blown completely and trails by over 3 minutes.
The quartet up front is joined by Vanspeybrouck as we reach the next section of cobbles with 37km to go, with 40 seconds gap to the Summerhill group, 1’07 to Baugnies, Nolf, Stallaert, Spengler and Drucker, and 1’19 to Zepuntke, Debesay, Bohli, Albert and Machado.
However, Vanspeybrouck soon decides he doesn’t need company, and reaches the penultimate cobbled section with 24km to go alone. He has 41 seconds to a group of 10 containing Summerhill, Baugnies, Zepuntke, Nolf, Stallaert, Kuroeda, Ferreira, Bolivar, Grand and Van der Velde, while Debesay and Spengler are at 2’05, and Vanbilsen and Sinkeldam at 2’42.
Summerhill forces a selection as he leads the chase, with only Baugnies, Zepuntke, Nolf, Stallaert and Ferreira able to follow. With 21km to go they are 21 seconds behind Vanspeybrouck.
The Belgian seems to run out of steam soon after and is caught. The high pace of the chase drops Stallaert and Zepuntke however, and so a group of 5 leads onto the final cobbled section with 12km to go: Summerhill, Baugnies, Vanspeybrouck, Nolf and Ferreira.
However, the expected fireworks don’t come on the cobbles, and with 9km to go and only tarmac ahead this group remains intact. Stallaert is at 1’11 and Zepuntke at 1’31 so they look safe up front, provided they don’t implode.
Indeed, they don’t mess about and in fact extend their advantage to 2’11 as they reach the flamme rouge - and the accompanying short uphill stretch of cobbles.
With 500m to go, none of the riders have shown their hand, although Summerhill looks strongest based on the climb so far.
And he shows that, making his move with 200m to go! Only Vanspeybrouck can follow, but it doesn’t appear he can catch the American.
In fact, Summerhill extends his advantage and takes an excellent win!
Vanspeybrouck takes 2nd, though he’ll be disappointed not to win after animating the race today.
3rd goes to Nolf, ahead of Ferreira and Baugnies.
Stallaert is 6th, a long way down the road.
Zepuntke leads a big group over the line for 7th shortly afterwards, ahead of Van der Velde, Bolivar and Sinkeldam. Debesay is 11th, Kireva 12th, Albert 13th, Bester 14th and Drucker 15th. Kuroeda can only take 17th after looking strong early on, but he won’t be as disappointed as Vanbilsen down in 28th. 10 riders fail to make the time limit, with Schomber the furthest behind, still having 36km to go almost 3 hours after Summerhill finished!
