211 km of relatively flat cobbles. The more endurant of the cobblers are the favorites, Pedersen being the first of them.
20 km into the race, the break isn’t settled yet. Aker, Tinkoff, UBS or Grieg are determined to not let a bigger group go out. ELCO, cycleYorkshire and Puma are the main team looking for a place at the front in the first cobbled sector.
175 km left. 7 men have a gap, in two groups:
Boutopoulos, Nieuwenhuis and Ballerini have 49 seconds on Wright, Hesters, Nommela and Lauk, who themselves have 1’30 on the peloton, led by the aforementioned teams.
The 7 men group 15 km later. Brändle is the first dropped from the pack. With 145 km left, that’ll be a long day for him.
Forty kilometers later, the peloton is already down to 158 men as the climbs and the cobbles take their toll. There are some punctures too, like for Swift, but without major consequence. The gap between the peloton and the break stays around 3 minutes.
Some more kilometers later, Siric and Van Lerberghe attack!
Bush tries to join them.
Ahead of this peloton-action, the pack is exploding!
At the 75 km mark, there’s holes in the pack. Altur, Van den Berg, Salzmann and Neilands are in the wrong side, though they should be able to rejoin.
The situation isn’t better for the worst cobblers though: a bit more than 15 kilometer later, there are riders scattered all along the route. Only Wright and Boutopoulos stay at the front.
They respectively have 1’49 and 1’01 on an 81 men favorites group. Only EA Vesuvio desn’t have a rider in this group. Boros is dropped, but Nommela’s still here for Moser.
Ariesen is upping the pace.
Maybe the big move? There are still 50 km left, but Van Baarle, Pedersen and Per got a gap. These three could be able to stay ahead! Tinkoff is chasing.
That move drops Anderberg, Bohli, Sulimov and Salzmann.
Potts takes the chase in hand after this. A group of 19 chasers is 45 seconds behind the three leader ( Wright has also been brought back.) Not in this group are Vermeersch, Ferreira, Tiller and Sulimov.
Van Baarle doesn’t hold in the front. Same for Siric and Bolivar in the chasing group.
Still a long way to go, but Per leaves Pedersen behind him!
Senechal is chasing now.
Big bummer for UBS, as Spengler and Jacobs are dropped with 30 km left. Vanbilsen and Potts are dropped too.
Per gets up to 1’15 on Still a long way to go, but Per leaves Pedersen, who will be caught by a group of 9: Senechal, Kamyshev, Wisniowski, Gerts, Polanc, Kasperkiewicz, Altur, Stallaert and Teunissen. Van Baarle will soon be dropped. The question is, who will chase when Senechal is spent?
Easy answer, it’s the world champion, Wisniowski! His acceleration provokes a big surprise: one of the favorites, Pedersen, seems unable to follow!
20 km and one cobbled sector to go. Per has 40 seconds on Kasperkiewicz, who’s 8 seconds ahead of Wisniowski, Kamyshev, Polanc, and Gerts. Altur, Teunissen and Stallaert are a bit further back.
14 km left. Wisniowski managed to go out of the chasing group.
He quickly joins Kasperkiewicz and takes the lead of the duo. Per takes on the last cobbled sector.
9 km left, all relatively flat. Wisniowski joined Per. Kasperkiewicz is 20 seconds behind. Kamyshev, Gerts and Polanc are at 1’26. Pedersen already is 4 minutes back.
And soon they were three! Kasperkiewicz managed to join the leading group.
They have a 1 minute lead, which should be enough to dispute the win between them.
But it isn’t! They don’t work nearly hard enough, and we get a group of 6 for the three last kilometers!
Wisniowski takes matters in hands under the flamme rouge. With Per, he’s the best sprinter of the group.
700 m. The two are indeed in the lead.
500 m. Per has the upper hand now. There’s a strong headwind in the finish.
200 m. Can the win really escape Per now?
No! Per wins E3 in a sprint!
Wisniowski is 2nd.
Kasperkiewicz beats Kamyshev to 3rd.
Polanc continues a series of big results with 5th, ahead of Gerts.
Altur is 7th.
Teunissen is 8th.
Stallaert is 9th.
Senechal is 10th, which makes it two in the top 10 for Tinkoff.
Disappointing race for Pederberg, who finishes out of the top 10.
Phonarjthan is once again out of time.
That’s the end of the cobbles season for me, but certainly not for the PT peloton. Continue to follow the exciting races still to come!
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