Only one opportunity left for cobblers before Paris - Roubaix, and it’s today. The conditions are good for the riders, partly cloudy with some wind. Let’s see how it goes.
Bax opens up the attacks very early. He’s quickly followed by Juarez, Reckweg and Svab.
But after that stretch, the peloton finally relents and the 8 gain 3 minutes in no time.
55 kilometers into the race, Vanhoucke suffers a puncture. He does make it back to the breakaway after a while, let’s hope he didn’t have to spend too much energy here. Their lead is up to 5 minutes.
Tackling the Muur van Geraardsbergen, we see the first cracks in the breakaway. Bax can’t keep up anymore, Goncalves is dropped as well, but both eventually make it back to the group after a lengthy chase.
Lierse SK are showing their colors at the front of the peloton on the mythical climb. Good exposure, certainly, but they came for more then just that. We’ll see if Vanbilsen has as good a pair of legs as these images may suggest.
Everything up to this point was just the intro, but soon we’re getting more cobbles in quicker succession and steeper hills. The first few of these already splinter the peloton. Among the riders behind the first split are Puccio, Orue, Karatzios and Kuroeda, as well as guys like Saber and the Farfetch leadership trio. As is so often the case, the peloton calms down a bit soon after and those riders make it back, but it’s a warning shot.
The breakaway has been working well, still leading by more than three minutes, but now Bax and Goncalves are in trouble again. This time, they wouldn’t make it back.
Tinkoff and Evonik have been pacing relentlessly in the peloton, which continues to stretch and compress like an accordion. So far, all the major names have stayed out of trouble, but it seems like it’s only a matter of time before some of the gaps will stick.
Up ahead, Trondsen has to let his now five remaining former companions go. The quintet still has around 2’30 on the pack.
The elimination in the breakaway continues and Svab is the last man standing. Juarez is the only one not caught yet by the peloton …
… where Sulimov has been putting in the work! Following a combination of two cobbled hilly sections, only 26 riders remain with him. Orue and Richardson may be the biggest names missing, in addition to Declerq (his teammate Cavagna managed to stay with the contenders so far though). Most of the lower-tier leaders like Saber are also off the back - and this looks like a permanent selection.
A handful kilometers later, this comes as a bit of a shock: Sibilla apparently has a bad day, he drops from the group with still more than 20 other riders in there. With him is Polnicky, Bewley’s final helper.
While Bewley is on his own, other teams show strength in numbers. Tinkoff still has four riders, Evonik even five! Other leaders with a domestique by their side include Vanbilsen, Per, Teunissen and Puccio. Zepuntke, Karatzios, Van Hooydonck and Cavagna are the remaining solo riders, in addition to former escapee Juarez.
It’s a weird sight, but despite all those Tinkoff and Evonik domestiques, Bewley takes long turns at the front of the group. Maybe he’s feeling just that good?
Make that 19: Svab is swept up with 29 kilometers to go. If he has conserved some energy and can continue at a decent pace, he might be getting a decent chunk of unexpected points today.
Three cobblestone sections and two hills are left. The Eikenberg combines two of those and is up here next. Neilands was just making the pace, but suddenly he finds himself with a gap to the rest of the group, and alongside Bewley and Senechal! The other favorites have to react now!
Bewley seizes the opportunity and brings some distance between himself and the rest of the field. Senechal furiously tries to catch up.
That much pace is too much for Naud, leaving just Neilands with Blythe. Karatzios has to let go as well.
On the next cobblestone sector, Kerkgate, Senechal makes it to Bewley. The two have caught the others completely off-guard and with the Tinkoff guys obviously not chasing, they quickly get a gap of a full minute!
Neilands and Polanc spearhead the pursuit. On the other end of the group, Cavagna, Puccio and Sulimov try to keep up.
For Sulimov and Cavagna as well as Malecki, that’s just not in the cards anymore at this point …
… while Puccio is giving his all to somehow stay in Teunissen’s slipstream.
Meanwhile, we have a big development up front! Bewley has left Senechal behind, going solo potentially towards his fourth consecutive win here? He still has a minute on the other favorites, the French now about halfway in between.
Puccio finally falls behind alongside Vanbilsen. 9 riders are left ahead of them, but as we see in the distance, Teunissen is in trouble now as well.
Which leaves Kamyshev and Zepuntke following Blythe, Per, Polanc and Neilands. But they struggle to make up any ground. Senechal found a good rhythm and is 45 seconds ahead, 25 seconds behind Bewley. But still 16 kilometers to go.
After some fine work, Neilands is done for the day - well, not really. He still has to secure his own Top 10 result.
And that’s not going to be very easy either. A good minute behind him, a group of six has formed, including Cavagna, Puccio, Vanbilsen, Teunissen, Sulimov and Malecki. Naud and Karatzios try to catch up as well, followed by a number of the other domestiques previously distanced.
But back ahead, where I may have been too optimistic about Senechal’s good rhythm. With Neilands gone, Polanc took a few big turns and brough the French back. They also reduced the gap to Bewley, but that’s still at just under a minute.
A reason for the decreasing gap: After Senechal was caught, Kamyshev suddenly had an incentive to get to work, and that he did. His pace was too much for not only his teammate but also Zepuntke and somewhat surprisingly Blythe. Per and Polanc both keep up for now, riding towards a phenomenal team result for Isostar.
Senechal was quickly distanced by Zepuntke and Blythe, paying for his earlier efforts. He’s now the eigth rider on the road, ahead of Neilands …
… who is still 40 seconds ahead of his chasers, but Teunissen has increased the pace there, leaving Cavagna, Malecki and Puccio behind.
Kamyshev, Per and Polanc had been working well together, they brought the gap to Bewley down to half a minute, but heading into the final 5 kilometers, they seem to have hit the wall. None of them looks very well anymore.
In contrast to the Kiwi, who is pedaling calmly and focussed. His advantage increases again - victory number four is well within his reach!
Or have I spoken too soon? There’s movement behind, and it’s Polanc who somehow has an actual attack in him. Can this work, or is it too little too late?
He gets a gap for a bit, but then Kamyshev finds another gear himself and counters, reaching him just ahead of the flamme rouge. But this is only for second place - Bewley is too far ahead.
No celebration, is it maybe routine already here? No, I’m sure this feels just as good as the first time and Bewley is simply exhausted as he achieves a historic fourth win in a row at the E3 Prijs!
In the podium fight, Kamyshev and Polanc enter the final corner side by side, a few meters ahead of Per. It’s about who has any little bit of energy left in the tank, and nothing else.
It’s an Isostar sandwich, but Kamyshev still has the slightest of leads.
And that’s enough. Kamyshev finishes second, third place goes to Per, Polanc crowns a phenomenal race with a fourth place.
In an even closer photo finish, Zepuntke pips Blythe at the line to take fifth place. Not the result you’d expect between the two of them in a regular sprint, but just like the guys ahead, neither of them even managed to get out of the saddle.
Senechal comes in next …
… then Neilands just barely fends off Teunissen. Vanbilsen completes the Top 10, Sulimov rounds out a strong team result by Tinkoff.
Also very strong: Cavagna, who finishes 12th ahead of Puccio and Malecki.
Karatzios gets the final Top 15 spot ahead of Bolivar, and Evonik gets a total of four riders into the Top 20 with Riesebeek and Naud. 19th place for a sensational van Zyl.
Anderberg closes the Top 20 as he leads this group over the line that also contains Declerq, Potts, a disappointing Sibilla, the fifth (!!) Evonik rider Budenieks and former escapee Svab, who ends up in 25th place.
E3 Prijs 
