A lot of riders try to join the break, but only six succeed, including a duo from Carlsberg, which has Per as one of the favourites today. Also a rider from Assa Abloy, where last year’s winner Wisniowski is an other one of the favourites. The six riders up front are Kaloniatis (Assa), Van Tricht (Carlsberg), Matsangos (Carlsberg), Brockhoff (Polar), Poljanec (Cedevita) and Schinnagel (Puma). In the peloton we see Lidl, Rabobank, Evonik, Zara and Grieg chasing.
Around 100 km left as the six leaders are on the first cobbled sector of the day, after having conquered that longer asfalted uphill sector in the first +- 50 km. Their lead has already been cut to just over two minutes currently, after it has been around 5’30” maximum. There was a little split in the pack some km’s ago, but nothing serious.
This is interesting! 92 km to go and right before the second cobbled sector, which is uphill, Teunissen goes for a long range attack! Boros, Stocek and Cavagna follow the Gazelle leader!
Swift, Teunissen’s domestique Godon and Schmid attack right after that, and join the four others on top of the hill. As those seven are nearing in on the six breakaway riders, three more riders attack in the peloton on the next cobbled ascent with 82 km to. These three are Girmay, Spengler and Van Gestel! The gaps between different groups or more or less a minute, with the difference between the first group and the peloton being around three minutes now. In the peloton, it’s still the same teams working as in the beginning, although Grieg stopped working as they have Van Gestel in the attack now.
The breakaway riders and the first seven chasers minus Boros are together with around 70 km to go and just after the following cobbled uphill sector, as the Moser rider is at around a minute of them in the company of Girmay and Van Gestel. At an additional twenty seconds is Spengler, who clearly isn’t a fan of the uphill sectors today. A peloton of 165 riders at an additional 1’35” of the Vesuvio rider, so more or less at three minutes of the leading group still.
The next cobbled ascent also means the next attack from the peloton! Three new riders going for it are Barthe, Van der Hoorn and Kamyshev! They immediately catch Schinnagel and Spengler, but still have quite a way to go to our eleven leaders. Definitely a chaotic race!
Rabobank, Evonik and Lidl keep working and keep the attackers in sight, while also reeling back in several of them. 50 km to go and we are on an uphill asfalted sector, as there are nine leaders remaining. It’s early breakaway rider Matsangos who has a gap over Poljanec, in his turn followed by Brockhoff, Godon, Cavagna, Schmid, Stocek and right behind those five also Teunissen and Kaloniatis. There are four cobbled ascents and two asfalted uphill sectors left before we head on the tough finish, and live images will also start in a second! You can follow the rest of the race both in writing here, and/or by watching the link below.
Lidl and Grieg are also fully back in the chase now. Chiu and Meiler make it seven at the front now, where apart from Meiler’s teammate Matsangos we also still have the Gazelle duo of Godon and Teunissen, Jura’s Schmid and Cedevita’s Poljanex surviving for now. Only a thirty second lead over the peloton with 33 km to go, as the next asfalted ascent is already next on the menu.
Good domestique work by Stewart, as he makes sure all of those are caught uphill. Guess who is next to attack? The one and only Tommy P! Pidcock with the attack now, and you never know how far a guy like him can take it!
Not very far, is the answer. On the following cobbled ascent four riders create a small gap, but that is closed down almost instantly. 21 km to go now as we’re back to that asfalted ascent, and the peloton is now split into two large groups. A group of 40 has 45 seconds over the following group of 64 riders, that includes riders such as Teunissen, Rutsch and Ferreira.
Pidcock being Pidcock! The young Brit attacks again, he’s followed by Senechal, Van der Poel, Gaday and Gerts!
They get caught with 14 km to go, right before the penultimate cobbled ascent of the day. Van Hooydonck leads in a new attack, at the top we see Pidcock, Gerts, Van der Poel, Polanc, Pedersen and Bosnian champion Siric ahead of and around the Fastned Belgian! 11 km left!
8 km to go as Pidcock and Gerts have a small gap over a group of thirteen riders! Those are Polanc, Pedersen, Senechal, Van Hooydonck, Theuns, Anderberg, Altur, Siric, Van der Poel, Gaday, Sulimov, Salzmann and Menten! Top cobblers Wisniowski and Per not in this group!
The Xero rider is too strong for Gerts, Pidcock now solo at the top of the hill with 6.5 km left! Anderberg leads the chase!
2.3 km to the finish line and the gap Pidcock – 14 chasers has grown to 35 seconds! A tough finish though, can the Xero rider hold on?!
Final km, final uphill cobbled sector! Anderberg creates a small gap over the other chasers and cuts the lead down by a few seconds! Wisniowski and Per suddenly in this group of 16 chasers as well!
Pidcock’s dreams are crushed with 600 metres to climb, as Pedersen and Anderberg pass him and the rest of the chasing group is also here, with Polanc currently in fourth!
Final 300 metres! Gerts into the lead now, with Pedersen, Polanc, Van der Poel and Theuns also still with a shot to win this race!
Final 100 metres, as it seems to be only Pedersen and Polanc to battle it out for the win!
Polanc takes the win! The Evonik rider improves on his second place from last year in a thrilling sprint against top favourite Pedersen, who makes it two second places in two cobbled races so far this season for him and his team Grieg - Maersk!
Theuns is the final rider on the podium after a good ascent, with a very strong Van der Poel in fourth just missing out on that podium. Van Hooydonck with a solid fifth ahead of Anderberg, with Altur seventh in his team's home race. Gerts in the end dropped back to eighth, ahead of Bosnian champion Siric in ninth.
Senechal rounds out the top-10 ahead of Menten, whereas Per and Wisniowski raced anonymously today, and can't be happy with places twelve and thirteen. In the end Pidcock finishes fourteenth after his great ride, with Gaday in fifteenth right behind him.
