Mathias Norsgaard lead us off in Franceville. He settled into a very docile pace, with only Sandy Dujardin coming through to work alongside the Dane. Eventually, Miha Poljanec opened the race up, with Piotr Havik and Jimmy Muhindo following along behind him. Grieg and Aker were willing to let them go.

The break swelled to 22 riders before the peloton finally decided to tighten the reigns. Aker - MOT, Amaysim Cervelo, Grieg-Maersk, Tinkoff and UBS were the teams who came to this consensus. The day's breakaway consisted of:

Venturini	Menicucci
Kung	Girmay, Cannister
Poljanec	Boutopoulos, Kamberaj
Miltiadis	Havik, Becis
Godon	Gayral
Verwilst, Van Aert	Muhindo, Petit
Steimle	Doull
Young, Vermeersch, Novardianto	Campbell, Dekker, Dewulf

With a quartet of teams keeping the breakaway at arm's length for nearly fifty kilometres, we saw a series of adventurers set out in hopes of bridging across to the leading riders. Bert van Lerberghe kicked the movement off, with Hamish Schreurs, Pieter Vanspeybrouck and Georgios Karatzios accompanying him. When nobody responded to their attack Michail Kortsidakis, Cyrus Monk and Iliyan Kolev set out after them, with Isaac Bolivar and Jodok Salzmann following right behind.

Perhaps fearful of being outnumbered, Bert van Lerberghe made the decision to attack his companions. His solo mission was somewhat shortlived, as once his chasers had combined into a cohesive group they quickly closed the gap. For their part, the peloton seemed to have been captured by some kind of malaise. Although there were no shortage of numbers taking their turn in the wind, nobody had been willing to nudge the tempo up even so much as a single notch. This despite the fact that there were some dangerous names who had escaped, with Marc Potts, Olli Kulppi, Lukas Meiler and Yoeri Havik forming a third group on the road.

It was only once van Lerberghe's group had bridged across to the morning's breakaway that the peloton finally seemed to wake up. At this point Potts's group was about a minute behind the massive 34-man leading group. Aker - MOT, Grieg - Maersk, Tinkoff and UBS were still the only teams willing to work in the peloton.

The race really began to heat up as the peloton tackled the circuit's cobbled climbs. Out in front were Dorian Godon and Xhuliano Kamberaj, to whom it appeared the breakaway had largely turned over the responsibility of holding off the chasing pack. Given that chasing pack had both greater numbers and greater cohesion from the duo of Aker - MOT and UBS it can hardly be considered entirely surprising that the gap between the groups closed quite rapidly.

With less than two minutes to the breakaway, Jo Kogstad Ringheim and Mads Pedersen made their move. Evidently the Grieg-Maersk directeur sportif didn't think that the Dane would be able to outcompete his fellows in a bunch sprint. Despite gaining a small timegap across one of the many cobbled sections, Ringheim was unable to prevent Tom Bohli from chasing the duo down.

There was barely a moment of respite available however as Pedersen, having expended minimal energy sitting on his domestique's wheel, was only too eager to make another attempt at escaping. Again it was UBS burning their matches to bring the Dane back, with Martin Schäppi leading the chase. Pedersen proved a more difficult mark than Ringheim and Schäppi was forced to give way to Davide Ballerini, who in turn dropped out in favour of Johan Jacobs.

Across a ferocious few kilometres Pedersen came within seconds of bridging up to the breakaway before he was finally caught by his chasers. It must be regarded as something of a testament to the effort he demanded that, despite being practically on top of the escapees, the pace in the peloton dropped to the extent that they were able to return their lead to more than a minute before a unified chase could be reassembled. The more significant names which were dropped by this series of maneuvers included Ivan Siric, Jan Polanc, Lukas Meiler and Tim Ariesen.

As we moved back into Franceville's urban centre Jo Kogstad Ringheim took advantage of the excellent opportunity to launch another attack. The narrow city streets and associated sharp turns meant nobody had the opportunity to hold his wheel as he did so, although at least that meant that he couldn't drag Pedersen along this time. Instead it was Lukas Spengler who tried to bridge across with Sam Bewley and Florian Senechal dragging along the main bunch behind them.

Unfortunately for Ringheim he wasn't be able to take advantage of his short-lived success. Instead he was forced to pull up as he reached the rear end of the breakaway. Having submitted to being brought back by the peloton, with everybody quite exhausted by a long day in the saddle and thoroughly soaked with mud and grit, the escapees had fanned out across the road. Given their large number, and the fact that even multiple lanes in Franceville does not produce a significant amount of width, some delicate maneuvering was necessary in order to navigate through the densely-packed bodies.

Clement Venturini who, sniffing an opportunity to sneak away whilst the bulk of his competitors were still trapped further back, promptly stood up on his pedals and launched onto the attack. The first responder was Kenneth Vanbilsen, who had Spengler and Edward Theuns on his wheel. Unfortunately for them, Vanbilsen's legs gave out and Venturini established some momentary clearance.

At this point the favourites began making moves of their own, instead of just closing opportunists down, with Joeri Stallaert flying across to, and immediately past, Venturini. Both David Per and Floris Gerts were interested in the move, but with the former incapable of holding onto the Belgian's wheel they had to settle for bridging across to Venturini.

Things began to settle down once more, with Jodok Salzmann drawing the peloton up to the first chasing group, which Venturini in turn led back up to Stallaert, who hadn't proven too keen on going solo all the way into the finish. Matteo Trentin, who might've had a decent chance at victory had he made it to the finale with the favourites, was the most significant name to drop off the pace.

Nobody can say that Clement Venturini didn't push himself today, he added to his earlier efforts by leading the peloton into the final ten kilometres. With even the mighty Tinkoff beginning to run low on domestiques, Senechal made his way to the front. Not a moment after the Frenchman took over the pacing Adam Blythe was on the attack, looking to make use of his domestique's loyalty.

It was a great move by the Brit, with Lukasz Wisniowski, in new colours and perhaps unused to lacking domestiques to do the work for him, slow to respond. Unhappy with this effort David Per made his second big effort of the day, looking to bridge across with Krists Neilands for company. Only the Isostar man would succeed in his efforts, catching and surpassing Blythe in a manner not unlike Stallaert with Venturini only minutes ago. This succession of attacks not working out for Binance.

A number of teams ought to be thankful that Stan Dewulf decided to step up to the task of bringing Per back into the fold, as at no point was anybody from Zwift a likely candidate for victory. Perhaps he just wanted their striking jersey to be picked up by the broadcast? Irregardless, he provided the opportunity for a brief attack from cobbles legend Sam Bewley, whose waning stardom was still sufficient to convince Dorian Godon to rapidly close him down.

With several domestiques patrolling the front of the peloton, but none willing to truly push the tempo, the group came freewheeling into the finish with the expectation of a mass sprint.

Without any leadouts, the sprint opened up under the red banner. The situation was as follows:

The everpresent Clement Venturini got the best jump, and managed to hold the lead going into the final left-hander. Lukasz Wisniowski did well enough to hold on to his wheel while Sam Bewley and Joeri Stallaert, two of the stronger sprinters, maneuvered themselves just behind him. Taking a tighter angle into the corner were Kenneth Vanbilsen and Floris Gerts, who would need good punch once they were out of the turn if they were to hold off Adam Blythe on the outside.


Having held the prime position on corner exit, it seemed that Venturini was headed for a surprise victory, a benefactor of the day's immensely strong breakaway. His seemingly secure pathway to success was blighted by the appearance of Jarrad Drizners, a weary domestique who was a lap down, smack-bang in the middle of it. In an excellent display of bike-handling ability, the Frenchman managed to dodge past the obstacle. Stallaert and Wisniowski, who formed the next row, were able to sweep around the offending rider without any concern, with Bewley and Blythe the only others with a notable chance of winning.


His unfortunate misadventure cost Venturini dearly, as Stallaert drew alongside him. Wisniowski definitely didn't have the necessary power to beat out that leading duo, and a surging Bewley meant his presence on the podium was also in danger. Blythe, Vanbilsen, Gerts, and Gamper were the best placed behind the leading quartet, with a lapped Puma domestique causing further chaos
.

With Venturini out of gas and half a bikelength back to the next competitor, Stallaert looked assured of victory with 100 metres remaining. Bewley had surpassed a struggling Wisniowski, who was at this point stretching for a Top 5 placing. Blythe looked like he might still pose a podium threat despite having come from quite far back.


Joeri Stallaert timed his move perfectly! It might've come down to a bikethrow at the line, but good positioning and a hearty sprint meant he could raise his arms in celebration post-finish. Clement Venturini came within inches of pulling off a massive upset, but he can't be too upset with silver. Sam Bewley cut a similar path to today's winner but waited just a moment too long before ratcheting up his tempo, that single moment was enough to seperate first from third. Rounding out the Top 5 were Adam Blythe and Lukasz Wisniowski. The biggest disappointments are Yoeri Havik and Mads Pedersen, who really ought to have achieved more given the day ended in a bunch sprint.