208km is on the menu today, and it will consist of some small hills, and 3 star cobble sectors along the way. According to the bookies, Baugnies, Nolf, and Maes are the podium favourites but dont be surprised if another rider takes the win, as its a long day of racing and the constant hills and cobbles could give way to an underdog with good daily form.
We start the day off with 5 escapees. Menicucci, Bablidze, Korosec, Maccagli, and Mugisha.
Now with 150km to go, the breakaway has established themselves ahead of the peloton, with an advantage of 3'33. The pace seems to be light in the peloton, and the break seems to be cooperating quite well at the moment.
First puncture of the day is a tie between Domene and Kuznetsov. Last years winner has no trouble getting back into the peloton, but the Russian has a slower wheel change, and is now chasing behind the peloton, with 135km to the finish.
He will have to fight to get back into the peloton, as the pace has increased somewhat.
Heartbreak for Maccagli who punctures out of the breakaway. He will not be able to rejoin them. Meanwhile, Kuznetsov is still behind the peloton, but continues to chase. The gap is hovering on 1min.
With 114km still to ride, two riders go on the attack as they've had enough of the slow pace of the peloton. Bester and Paprstka and these two are definitely dangerous riders to be letting clear for the main bunch, but they quickly get a gap.
Kuznetsov finally makes it back into the peloton, perhaps an indication that the pace is slowing significantly, hence the attacks up ahead.
Just a few kilometers later, a group of 4 attack. Bester and Paprstka have already made it up to the E1 group containing the now 4 morning breakaway riders, who have a gap of just over 2'00 to the peloton. The 4 riders attacking behind are: Bovenhuis, Tsatevich, Okbamariam and Abraha
with Albert
following just behind.
Kluge also decides to follow this move, trailing Albert by a few meters as well.
With 100km to go, the race situation, sees E1 just over 1min ahead of the newly formed E2 group. Maccagli despite puncturing is still ahead of the peloton, but kind of in no-mans land, and looking to be out of energy already. The peloton is still under 3mins down, with lots of time still to go.
Yet more attacks as De Vreese, Menten and Schoonbroodt get impatient. This move is made only 3kms after the last attacks, so the peloton better start getting organized or the second half of the race could get extremely chaotic.
We fast forward a bit, to 85km to go now, and the former E2 group, with Tsatevich has made it to the E1 group, meaning the new E2 group contains De Vreese, Menten and Schoonbroodt.
Over the next 25kms, the race situation stays more or less the same, except that, Mugisha drops from the E1 group, and Van Lerberghe punctures from the peloton. As van Lerberge is around 1min down and chasing, Grashev is dropped too. He simply wasn't strong enough to stay with the best today.
The chasing E2 group of De Vreese, Menten and Schoonbroodt and now Korosec
has still not caught the leaders, and is looking more and more like they wont. as they sit directly in the middle of a 2 minute gap between the peloton and the lead group, with the peloton gaining a little time on them every few KMs.
With 60km to go now, the peloton catches the De Vreese group, which is now only 60 riders large. The sole breakaway group now has a gap of 2mins, and is more or less retaining their gap.
Now Kluge punctures out of the lead group, with 49km to go. Bad luck for him. The gap to the peloton for the now 7 riders in the lead group is still 2mins. Will the peloton ever bring them back?
41km to go, and another top rider punctures, Eeckhout. Just as the peloton is increasing its pace too. Van Lerberghe was able to get back into the group before the pace increased, but he will probably be pretty tired now. Strava and Carlsberg are the two teams doing the chasing for the peloton which has been reduced further, to only 40 riders.
The breakaway now only leads by just over 1'00 as well. Could we have a coming together soon?
Resell and Novardianto both drop with 34km left. The peloton is now a select group of 29 riders, chasing a group of 7 in the break.
Our first dangerous move of the day, with 30kms to go, its Salzmann. the gap to E1 was just starting to extend a bit again, suggesting the power in the peloton was running dry, so perhaps this could be the perfect time to go.
Strava do all the chasing, especially Kluge who makes up for dropping out of the breakaway. Salzmann is caught and dropped, but the breakaway group is still holding the gap to 1'12 despite Strava's best efforts.
Paprstka launches a Cancellara-esque attack on the cobbles with 20km to the line, just as Strava seem to be losing its numbers in the peloton (which should just be considered the chasing group at this point). The Czech rides away from the 6 others in the lead group and with 15km to go, he is holding on to a gap of 30' seconds on the first chasing group and another 1'10 back to the main chasing group/peloton.
As we race into the town section (12km to go), Sinkeldam attacks with basically every favourite following on his wheel
For reference, this is the situation, as we get into the final act of the race.
8km to go, and Paprstka is caught by the first chasing group. He couldn't stay away, but he doesn't look cooked yet either...
We get to the final long cobble section, and it really shakes up the race. The breakaway seems to disintegrate with only Albert and Paprstka now in the lead, with the others all dropping.
Taubel, Baugnies and Van Avermaet attack from the second chasing group and immediately make it up to the dropped riders from the former lead group (now E2 on the road). The gap sits at 16 seconds to the two leaders in front, but the chasers will need to work together to catch them!
4km to go, and Paprstka has ridden away from Albert who is now in the 2nd group on the road, with Taubel, Baugnies
and Van Avermaet.
Another group of 4 is about 15 seconds back on that group, with Bovenhuis, Okbamariam, Abraha and Tsatevich.
Paprstka is caught and now under the kite, Van Avermaet opens up the sprint. He's the strongest sprinter in this group, as Paprstka, Taubel and Baugnies are not known for their sprint, so this one could be easy!
Now about 700m to go, and Van Avermaet seems to be pulling away as he heads into the final corner. Only Baugnies looks like he has a shot.
But surprisingly, Baugnies flies by him. A great win for the Belgian. Van Avermaet takes 2nd with Taubel in 3rd.
Owen just sneaks ahead of Paprstka and Albert to take 4th.
Naesen, Maes, Thomas and Van Lerberghe round out the Top 10.
