We are in for some cobbles, cobbles and more cobbles here in the southern part of Norway. It'a a nice sunny day for the riders with just a light breeze to accompany them.
The first attackers of the day are Plowright, Yamada and Drizners.
Those three stayed in front for only about 20 km. Specialized and Assa Abloy are wanting to control this race from the off.
We are done with four cobbled sectors and it's been a while since someone has tried attacking, but here we have Bevort having a go.
That move went nowhere and after some hard pacing we again get a bit of a lull and as that occurs someone tries to go. It's Varotsos this time, but again Specialized reel him back in quickly.
Nearing the halfway point of the race we see the patented sub top riders going on the attack. Those are:
Habimana Manakov Dekker Vermeersch Paprstka
We get a second wave of attackers:
Pithie Darbinyan Van Keirsbulck Kuroeda
Roosen makes a big effort, but he also makes it to the front group that is now 10 riders strong and all the teams with the big favourites are represented in this breakaway.
Interestingly Specialized and Ekoi stay at the front of the peloton, but realistically who else is there to pace. The front group are now 3 minutes ahead with 95 km remaining.
A slow tempo in the peloton means that the gap goes out to 5 minutes with just over 60 km left.
With nothing happening behind we go to the front of the race. Everyone is working together here taking their turns, but Bolt do have a slight upper hand here with two riders.
Passive riding in the peloton only provokes more attacks. Mengoulas is up the road now followed by:
The teams missing out on these new attacks have to react. Polanc is starting another attack. What this has done is it has increased the pace so with 35 km to go the gap to the breakaway is down to 3 minutes.
Orue is the next to attack and Louvel has instructions to go with him.
As those two are caught Lapeira counters. Ekoi may have a secondary plan here featuring their leader Zepuntke.
The last 20 km are here. The breakaway is done with the penultimate cobbled sector, but their gap is now down to only 1'37''.
The peloton is now down to just the favourites and a few domestiques. Some of the names not here include Insausti, Kuroeda, Van Lerberghe and Peng.
Here we go! Zepuntke attacks and he has Polanc, Kasperkiewicz and Schreurs on his wheel.
Polanc can't follow the other three as they look to catch the front of the race before the final cobbled sector.
Lots of lapped rider are obstructing here, but the main news is that Zepuntke cannot follow Kasperkiewicz and Schreurs!
In fact it's Schreurs who is the strongest here, but the front group is still just out of reach ahead of him.
Only 5 km left! It seems all the shots have been fired by the riders behind and this group is going all the way.
3 km to go. No one has jump the gun, but Darbinyan and Dekker are good sprinters sitting in 3rd and 4th position here.
Remember in the preview we see said there is one tiny elevation on the course. Well this is it. A 4% rise before the flamme rouge.
Dekker launches first and this might be a first come first served situation!
Talk about easy. Dekker can celebrate way before the finish line! He was the strongest sprinter in the group and he took no chances here.
Vermeersch wins the sprint for 2nd place ahead of Habimana and Manakov.
The 2nd row is a sprint for 5th which is won by Paprstka ahead of one of the better sprinters in Darbinyan. Pithie is 7th to complete a great day for Bolt. Roosenis 8th with Van Keirsbulck and Kuroeda completing the top 10.
In a day where the favourites for reasons unknown let the race be decided by domestiques it was David Dekker who proved to be the strongest and the luckiest. He is the 2025 Lillestrom GP winner!
Lillestrom GP 
