It's a beautiful day today in the Netherlands for the Rheden GP. Virtually no wind to speak of also, we hope for some great racing on the Rheden circuit. The riders take on the circuit 6 times with the final cobble section right before the finish line. But enough about that, let the race begin!
The kicks off with an early move by Barbier and Sarreau, as they attack on an uphill section as the riders leave the town.
Williams is the next rider to go and we see also Nareklishvili going on the attack in the background.
We see a whole group of riders also going forward now. We hope to get info on all of those as soon as possible.
All the breakaway riders have now merged into a single group. The peloton is close by though and only 1'14'' behind them. Let's see who's there:
Barbier Sarreau Williams Goldstein Park Lawless Neuman Juarez Halvorsen Geniets Nareklishvili Weinstein Pedersen
The breakaway have now reached the main cobble section for the first time. It's a 3 star section of 2.4 km, how selective it will be remains to be seen. Meanwhile the breakaway advantage has swelled to over 4 minutes.
Moser, Tinkoff, Grieg and UBS have taken control of the peloton and are setting the pace.
Wisniowski has a puncture as the riders go through the longer cobbled section for the 2nd time. It's a quick job by the mechanics and the Pole doesn't even leave the safety of the peloton as he's back on the bike.
We now have an attack from the peloton. Lindeman and Nooytens try their luck. But there's still 105 km left in this race, they have to bridge up to the other escapees to stand a chance. Those are still 2 minutes ahead of them.
We have another attack, this time it's Kuroeda and Kumara are looking to join the previous two attackers.
One more attack now with Tiller also looking to join the fun up the road.
Meanwhile the previous 4 attackers have made it across to the original breakaway. A total of 17 riders now in the breakaway with a 2'14'' gap to the peloton with 81 km remaining.
The peloton which was starting to get split up slightly is now reformed and entering the cobbled section for the 4th time. 1'54'' is their deficit to the escapees, 62 km left.
The cobbled section along with the subsequent hills have split the peloton now truly. 43 riders remained in front. Some of the bigger names in the 2nd group are Pedersen, Zhupa and Van Keirsbulck.
Pedersen has made it back, but we see the majority of riders are still trying to close what doesn't appear to be a big gap. Meanwhile the breakaway's advantage has shrunk to 1'13, 36 km remaining.
Speaking of the breakaway. The 17 riders have been working well together, but now we see a solo effort from Goldstein as he enters the penultimate of cobbled sections.
The Israeli's attack is neutralised following the cobble section and is the launchpad for Park who attacks on hill after it.
Back in the peloton we have Grieg setting the pace. The group has been reduced to 38 riders for the moment, their gap to the main escape group under a minute now. 28 km left.
With Park caught we now have another acceleration in the breakaway. The instigator is Geniets, followed by Halvorsen, Weinstein, Juarez, Neuman and Nooytens.
Attacks are coming from all over now! This time from the favourites group. Per has attacked and Wisniowski is following. The Slovenian might be thinking it's now or never. Kamyshev is leading the chase behind them.
Wisniowski has decided to work with Per as the duo have made it to the original breakaway. We see Neuman has attacked from the front group. Campari are the only team with 2 riders there so they can play the numbers game.
The other favourites have now joined Wisniowski and Per. This group of favourites and breakaway riders are still about 20'' behind the front 6 riders. 11 km remaining now.
Breen realises he can't wait no more and tries to attack, but he has Bewley firmly on his wheel.
There is no great teamwork in this group of favourites and the gap to the leaders is increasing!
At the front of the race Neuman has been caught and we now have Halvorsen attacking with only Nooytens being able to follow it seems. Only 7 km remain now.
3 km to go now, it looks like this race will go to the breakaway. The front two are holding a small gap to the other four, but the favourites are another 40'' back!
The front group has come back together on the final cobble section to the finish line. Behind we see Wisniowski putting in a final dig, but he is followed by Per, Bewley and Kamyshev.
Nooytens was the best cobbler in the break and he's making the difference here. But Halvorsen is sticking with him as they go under the flamme rouge. The favourites are closing in at the last minute here.
In the end the two escapees survive and it's the sprinter Halvorsen who takes a brilliant win! Nooytens has to settle for 2nd, but what a ride by him also. Remember he was one of the riders that attacked from the peloton midway through the race!
The final podium spot goes to Bewley, while Per gets the better of Wisniowski in the sprint for 4th.
Stallaert comes in 6th, he didn't have much to do today as his teammate took the surprising win. Kamyshev is 7th, Senechal 8th. Weinstein survives from the breakaway for 9th place and Polanc rounds out the top 10 for Isostar.
Rheden GP 
