A shiny brand new race greets us and the riders in Gabon. 19 sectors, mostly flat with some small inclines thrown in await the peloton, with the best cobbles specialists hoping to write their name in the history books as the first ever winner of this race.
We're all excited to see how this turns out. So let's get the action underway.
Favourites
FLA
STA
RES
COB
SPR
ACC
Wisniowski
80
75
76
83
73
76
Summerhill
78
76
72
83
70
73
Pedersen
77
78
80
79
78
77
Senechal
75
79
74
82
69
74
Trentin
74
76
71
81
75
76
Gerts
77
76
80
80
72
70
Kamyshev
77
81
75
82
66
60
Vanbilsen
78
80
74
80
72
71
Spengler
74
72
73
83
61
70
Vanspeybrouck
75
77
70
81
66
68
Kristoff
74
73
69
77
82
77
Ferreira
73
74
70
79
71
69
Fenn
72
75
71
79
70
69
Ringheim
72
75
71
78
73
75
Bohli
74
79
75
77
74
68
A slow start for the opening few kilometers as the riders took in the scenery of new destination.
Action soon got underway with nine riders breaking away just before the first cobbled sector. They are:
We catch up with the peloton as they come past the fifth cobbled sector. All the riders are together following a puncture to Trakhov. He has made his way back to the pack.
Oh hang on! That sector did cause splits at the back. 46 riders have been dropped but all the big names are safe.
Five riders from the early break are caught with 153 kilometers still to go. Rowe, Pons, Martins Sandoval and Verwilst remain at the front.
Feng attacks and catches the break with 141 kilometers to go, to make them five strong.
Talk about bad luck and timing! Just as Feng catches the break, he suffers a puncture on the cobbles and has to do it all over again. He would make it back again.
122 kilometers left. Grieg have things under control at the front of the peloton. They trail by 2'53". They're about to finish off the seventh sector.
Van Hooydock, Bolivar, Roosen, Manokov and Grand don't want to stick around with the pack and go on the attack.
A few kilometers later, Karatzios, van der Hoorn and Cominelli have the same idea.
The attacks keep coming as Jansen, Havik, Broers and Yechezkel leave the peloton behind.
And we're not done yet! Nooytens, Van Baarle and Richardson also get away.
All these riders would make it to the break for it to become a 20 man strong breakaway.
We see the pack now with 75 kilometers to go and 155 riders strong. They trail by 1'45". We're on the tenth sector.
Five riders - Broers, Yechezkel, Nooytens, Richardson and Van Baarle, are dropped from the break.
The five riders are caught with 65 kilometers remaining.
50 kilometers to go for the break as they are about to start the eleventh sector. Their lead is down to 1'28".
Jumping ahead another 10 kilometers, the leaders hold their gap at 1'25".
Martins Sandoval attacks 2 kilometers later.
Verwilst is dropped, with lapped rider Pereyra next to him.
Verwilst is caught by the pack soon after.
Up ahead, Martins Sandoval is also caught by the break.
The peloton completes the sixteenth sector with 113 riders. The gap has gone up to 2'9". 24 kilometers to go.
Van der Hoorn and Cominelli attack the break with 19 kilometers left. The break's lead has gone up further to 2'30".
15 km. Two cobbled sectors to go. The peloton can't seem to close the gap!
The break come back together a couple of kilometers later. The chase has increased their lead to over 3 minutes over the pack!
Vanbilsen thinks enough is enough and attacks to maybe try to bridge the gap on his own. 12 kilometers remain.
Vanbilsen would be caught 2 kilometers later, without making much inroads into the break.
7 kilometers to go for the surviving 14 man break. Their lead stands at 3'24".
Vanbilsen launches another attack, this time with Pedersen in tow. The gap has come down slightly.
The break comes past the last cobbled sector. Just 3 kilometers remain for them and surely they can't be caught now. Their lead is still over 3 minutes!
Back in the pack, Summerhill and Van den Berg attack as the earlier move is reeled in.
19 riders have got a gap in the peloton, as they try to chase down the latest attack.
Sulimov, Lampaert and Vanspeybrouck are not in the lead group, among others.
The peloton is made up of Senechal, Wisniowski, Trentin, Kamyshev, Zhupa, Palyi, Gerts, Spengler, Bohli, Pedersen, Molingui, Debesay, Kristoff, Andersen, Vanbilsen, Fenn, Orue, Degenkolb and Ngandamba.
1 kilometer to go for the break where Van der Hoorn is leading them out. Bad time to catch some lapped riders though!
Manokov has taken the lead with half a kilometer left. Havik is coming through fast.
The situation changes again with 300 meters to go:
Havik
Manokov
Jansen
Pons
Martins Sandoval
Rowe
Van der Hoorn
Karatzios
Feng
Roosen
Van Hooydonck
Havik extends his lead as we move into the final 100 meters. Pons and Jansen are gaining on Manokov for 2nd.
Rowe is catching both Jansen and Manokov with 50 meters left. Pons is up into 2nd.
Havik holds on for the win! The Vesuvio rider gets his unwanted moment being lapped at the most (im)perfect time.
Pons is 2nd. Rowe comes past to claim 3rd. Jansen too comes past Manokov for 4th, while the latter has to settle for 5th. Martins Sandoval is 6th.
Van der Hoorn takes 7th.
Van Hooydonck makes it 7-8 for Aegon. Roosen is 9th.
Karatzios completes the Top 10. Feng, Grand, Bolivar and Cominelli compleye the order for the break.
2 kilometers to go for the pack. Summerhill and Van den Berg hold a 20 second lead over the pack.
21 riders are in the peloton.
the next group has 28 riders including Vanspeybrouck, Sulimov and Lampaert.
Van den Berg rides away from his more illustrious rival with 500 meters left.
Van den Berg takes 15th.
Just a 3 second lead for Summerhill over the chasing group 200 meters to go.
Summerhill is swamped before the line. Pedersen takes 16th, ahead of Kristoff and Trentin. Summerhill is 19th. Vanbilsen completes the Top 20.
Today's winner - Yoeri Havik.
That was...different! Yoeri Havik becomes the unlikely first name to go up on the honours board of the Franceville Classique. Pons and Rowe complete the podium. Jansen saves Grieg's race to some extent with a 4th place finish. They'll probably still be dissatisfied having had two huge contenders for this race. The teams of the other favourites will be scratching their heads for a while as to how they let the break take this one, especially after having come so close to catching them.
