Welcome to Dunkerque in the north of France for this hilly cobbled classic. The riders will start the race on the north coast in Dunkerque and venture inland in the south, south-east direction towards the town of Cassel. There the riders will take on the hilly circuit with cobbles. The organisers were noticeably disappointed when they found out only 10 teams and 75 riders have decided to participate in the race. With all that said let us see what the one day of Dunkerque has to offer.
We witness the first attack of the race just as the riders are leaving the town. It's Pibernik, Doull and Planckaert on the move. Carrefour are trying to put a man up the road from the start.
Now we have another group of riders trying to extricate themselves from the peloton. We have Oss, Bablidze, Barbier, Kamberaj and Korosec on the attack.
And we have one more Young missed both of the early moves and is trying to go on his own now. He's only 25'' down on the 2nd group so he might well make it across.
With about 20 km into the race the front groups have now all merged together into a breakaway of 9 riders. Not a small number given the startlist. Guave's, Trans and Carrefour are the teams with 2 riders in the breakaway that has an early advantage of 3'07''.
The breakaway have reached the town of Cassel and will start the hilly circuit. They take a sharp right turn as the start climb. Let's look at it a bit closer:
It's not a steep climb by any stretch, but at 3.5 km in length it will sap the riders legs. The 1st half is paved and the 2nd half and a bit over the top is cobbled. The cobbles are of medium 3 star difficulty, we will see if some lesser specialists will be able to handle them. The breakways gap has been cut to 2'09''. 125 km still left.
After the cobbles there is a short descent followed by a paved hill. This one is shorter at 2.2 km, but is also steeper, especially in the 2nd part.
We see Los Pollos controlling setting the pace at the front, but in the back we already see the first casualties of the cobbles. Barbin, Hategeka and Zordan are among those that have fallen behind. Strong puncheurs, but clearly not suited to the cobbles.
The breakaway is still all together as they take on the cobbles for the 2nd time. They'be brought up the advantage to 2'45'', but we still have almost 110 km left.
Van Avermaet has suffered a puncture as the peloton is tackling the cobbles for the 3rd time. If you have to have a puncture it's better now as the pace is still quite tame. Not panic by Strava as they had 4 men waiting for him on the descent and he was swiftly back in the peloton.
Heading into the cobbled climb for the 5th time, we still have Los Pollos controlling things at the front. The peloton has reduced to 46 riders, all the favourites are present as expected at this point. The gap is 3'26'' with just under 70 km to go.
6th trip up the cobbles and this time we have Farfetch leader Menten with a puncture. His teammates Salzmann and van den Berg are stll in the peloton, but do they get the order to drop back at this point? We have 55 km left in the race.
They have, Salzmann and van den Berg are here for Menten, but the bike change took a while and they're almost 2 minutes down on the main pack. Have Farfetch made the correct decision?
Menten seems to be chilling at the back of this group that is just behind the main group of favourites. van den Berg and Salzmann are giving they're all to bring their leader back to the front of the race, but they still have 1'09'' to make up. 44 km to the finish.
Up front we see Coronel doing an excellent job for his leader Baugnies. The breakaway is almost caught at this point and they main group is down to 19 riders. Thomas has been dropped while Menten is still about a minute behind, he still has Salzmann working for him.
Menten has had to take matters into his own hands, but he's made it back before the non cobbled hill.
We haven't seen the breakaway for a while so with 30 km left, let's take this time to take stock of the situation on the road. Oss is the lone rider up front with a 32'' gap over his breakaway companions which still include Bablidze, Barbier, Korosec, Planckaert and Doull. The 5 have a further 45'' over the 19 rider peloton that now includes all the prerace favourites.
De Vreese has put his foot down on the cobbles and we have race favourite Tsatevich who has lost contact along with his teammate Nolf, Menten and Van Lerberghe!
The group comes back together on the descent in part thanks to Schoonbroodt despite the fact Naesen was up front with teammates in support?! In fact Bralirwa are the dominant team here with 4 riders in a group of 14. 24 km from the finish.
De Vreese is doing a long turn at the front and has maintained a steady pace over the non-cobbled hill. There are still 4 riders up front with 20 km to go.
Baugnies has no teammates in this group, but has decided to take to the front as they take on cobbled climb for the penultimate time. 17 km to go.
A combination of pace setting on cobbles by De Vreese, who gave it his last go, Sinkeldam and Baugnies has opened just a slight gap to Tsatevich, Nolf, Menten and Van Lerberghe. 13 km left, can they get back on the descent?
Yes, everyone came back, but not for long. Sinkeldam is now on the attack! Van Avermaet is on his wheel followed by Naesen and Baugnies.
Neither Tsatevich nor anyone else could respond to the attack, so the front 4 riders have quickly opened 27'' gap over the rest. Less than 6 km to the finish now.
I'm sure that Sinkeldam was hoping drop the others as well, but they're all together on ascent to the line now. Baugnies has moved into 2nd position, Van Avermaet might be starting to suffer a bit, while the fast finishing Naesen is the rear. The 2nd group is 32'' back and looks unlikely to get back, 2.7 km to go.
I might have spoken to soon the others are back with 2 km to go, but now Baugnies is making his move!
Sinkeldam was able to follow the Belgian at first, but as soon as the cobbles started, Baugnies opened a gap. 1.2 km to go, can he hold on?
It looks like he can! 700 m left and Baugnies has a 24'' gap over Sinkeldam who has only 9'' ahead of the other favourites led by Tsatevich.
But Jerome Baugnies does not care he lifts his hands in the air early, to celebrate his victory! He was clearly the strongest in the end.
Naesen will have to settle for 2nd place for the 2nd straight race, but that's still a great result. Van Lerberghe improves upon his Lincoln performance to finish 3rd. Prerace favourite Tsatevich is 4th, while Sinkeldam blew up in the final meters to take 5th. A brave ride, by him nonetheless.
Menten takes 6th as he passes some lapped riders. He fought hard after his ill timed puncture. Okbamariam and Schoonbroodt are 7th and 8th. Fantastic depth by Bralirwa.
Nolf is another who improves on his Lincoln performance with 9th place here.
1 Jour de Dunkerque 
