When Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne comes around it can only mean, that the classics season is starting and what better place than to start it here. The race is renowned for it's usual bad weather mixed with many different terrains to master, as the riders will get familar to the Cobble Pavées of Belgium and the Ardennes in the same race.
The name can be misleading however, as we'll never go into the city of Bruxelles at all and we'll just pass a small town 25 km's away, but on the way back to Kuurne the riders will get their first sight of the Ardennes and it's here the riders will prove themselves before the sprinters have a chance to take over. Cause a winner might also have to have skills in Sprints, Hills and on Cobblestones, which means this is a good place for the rouleurs to show themselves.
Route
The riders will have to go through 203 km's of hard terrain to pass and usually the breakaway will have some bigger names than usual, as the breakaway have a lot more room to maneuver in this race. The Ardennes and Cobblestones will sort out the weakest and the one leader with the best support will most likely win.
Guys like Cancellara and Vanmarcke will probably take advantage of their experience and Cancellara is most certain to try and attack with around 50 km left and this is where we leave the Ardennes and where we will see who has the most strength left.
La Houppe is the hardest climb of them all as the road will be tidy and to makes things worst most of the climb contains cobblestones, it's all about sticking to the front. Boonen has won this race 3 times and this were where he made his stand and this is where Haussler and Demare will get their best option to win over the other sprinters
Other notable climbs are Cote du Trieu and Kanarieberg, where the latter is a pure Ardennes climb with a constant tempp, which might give some troubles for the sprinters. Cote du Trieu's tempo will shift and finding the right gear is vital for the riders. The climb's technicality isn't that high, but it's enough to cause some sort of seperation between the riders.
Startlist
A quite strong pack considering the size of it and this will only be the advantage of some certain riders. It's almost impossible to predict how the race will be like and the sprinters can only be lucky if it doesn't succeed for Cancellara and the other cobblers.
Garmin probably has the strongest team overall here, but I think that this might be the biggest surprise in the pack, Cancellara has minimum support and Vanmarcke has a team with more strength for Bos in the sprints. Some of the future stars will also be looking forward to get his race done, as this will probably still be more of an experience to have for future use.
Nice preview, I'm tipping on a sprinter here, so I'm going to have to go for Greipel (who is German by the way ) to confirm last year's win. Still, a breakaway can succeed as well, so it might be hard to call a winner.
Time for Willunga! The queen stage is here today, and obviously the main question is whether Villella will hang on to his lead of 21 seconds on Kristoff. It's warm and windy today, so maybe this might play a role as well.
As usual, we have a few waves of attacks before the actual break is formed. The final break consists of Clarke (OGE), Flecha (MOV), Antón (EUS), Puccio (CCC) and Devolder (TFR) today. Undoubtedly Antón is the strongest in this break, having good experiences with this race as well.
While the pack, lead by FDJ, Sky and Europcar, slowly lets the lead grow to over 6 minutes, the break reaches the intermediate sprints. Not bothered about the points the break just rolls past it. Antón wins the first, at 88kms from the line, while Flecha wins the 2nd at 50kms from the line.
With the wind getting stronger the pace in the pack goes up. Many riders in the back of the pack are suffering, while the lead of the break is also brought down to 1m44 with 30km to go.
At the first Old Willunga hill, which starts with 27km to go, the break is immediately torn apart. Clarke attacks, and only Antón seems capable of following him.
All are reunited at the summit though, where Anton takes the maximum amount of points. The pack is 1m14 behind, with 23km left to ride for the 5 leaders.
The break heads into the final 10km with a lead of 1m12. Cannondale may have chased hard, but it doesn't seem to mind a break beating the pack today, with the bonification seconds available at the line.
The break seems to be exhausted though, and the lead goes down quickly. With 6km to go they hold just 25s.
And with 5km to go it's over for the break. We will probably have a group sprint up Old Willunga Hill, as apart from W. Walker (DPC) the pack is still complete.
And it's on! With 3km to go the first attacks take place. Schröder (+2m11), Gerrans (+37s) and Vichot (+37s) leave the pack behind.
More attacks follow very soon. Bernard (+1m21), Villella (1st GC), Moreno (+37s), Gasparotto (+1m21), Kakhi (+37s), Kristoff (+21s) and Gesink (+1m21) try to close the gap to the three leaders.
New attacks from Weschenbach (+3m00), Izagirre (+1m21), Bakelants (+1m21) and Vanendert (+3m10) cause a final split. In front a merger also takes place, meaning we are heading for the line with no less than 14 riders in front.
Since Villella is clearly suffering from the effort Gerrans and Vichot accelerate again, with 2km to go. The others try to follow, but seem to have trouble with that.
Villella is suffering a lot and with 1.8km to go he has dropped all the way to the back of the leading group.
With 1.5km to go Gerrans and Vichot have established a small gap. Gerrans now also tries to get rid of Vichot.
It seems over for Villella meanwhile, as with 1.4km to go he is dropped.
Gerrans and Vichot may have a gap with 1km left, but the chasers are now coming significantly closer.
An incredibly strong acceleration at the far left. Gasparotto easily passes Moreno and Vichot, and Gerrans seems like an easy target now.
At the summit he's taken over the lead. However, there's still 700m flat left until the actual finish, and Weschenbach and Izagirre seem to be heading to the front as well.
Kristoff also manages to hang on in the back of the group. With Villella being dropped this seems like an excellent opportunity for him to take over the lead.
Very far behind Evans has left the pack behind as well, but Villella is probably too far away for him. The pack has fully slowed down and probably given up.
Gasparotto doesn't seem to care about the rivals behind him, and has the highest speed coming out of the last corner.
And the victory goes to Gasparotto! Gerrans and Vichot complete the podium, while Izagirre and Weschenbach come 4th and 5th.
Kristoff comes in last of these leaders, but with only 10s available at the line he'll take over the lead again.
Villella loses over a minute today, and will drop a few spots in the GC.
Over two minutes behind Gasparotto Riquelme wins the pack sprint. Morton is the biggest loser in this group.
Well, at least Gesink gave us some points, but come on. An 11th in the GC and Riquelme always winning sprints after not bothering to join the leaders..
Report was very good though, can't complain about that
So erm.. Vichot am i right! 3rd place on the stage is great, 3rd on GC is amazing. Could you imagine if we also manage to win the Team competition? POINTS POINTS POINTS
A good effort from Lachie but it just wasn't enough. Hoping for a miraculous victory on the last stage but it seems we're doomed to just fail our goal here too
Seems like that Feunard will come home with a KoM jersey from his first race, that's pretty awesome for such a young rider, only needs to make an "Hägg"
KBK stage just finished, can only spoil that the AI can be colorful at times
The 2013 Tour of Oman was a success for the EPIC riders, with Thomas Peeters defeating Oreste Ghita. Both riders retired quite early in their career, unfortunately. The 3rd from last year, Ion Izagirre, isn't starting either, but Euskaltel does bring Cristiano de las Campos. Can he do something here after a quiet first season? BMC counters with Damian Owniak, also a promising youngster. However, both of them should not be a match for Alberto Contador. That's right, Oman has a really big name on the startlist this year!
But, there's more decent riders here. Roche and Trofimov will have to do it for Astana and Katusha. Looking at the Continental Tour then, there's a few nice names as well. Europcar won last year and got promoted, it might inspire the others. We have Peraud for AG2R, the young Alarcon for Caja Rural and the talented northerner Nokkvason for CCC. Hintermüller is there for MTN, he has shown some good stuff last year, what can he do this year? Finaly, you can never ignore Marc De Maar. If you can win Langkawi, you can Oman.
There's plenty of stages for the sprinters, a few hills and one tough summit finish that will probably decide the GC on stage 5. So looking at the stage winners, we can't go around Adrien Hanzen. The second best EPIC rider last year no longer has Brouwer to fear, so he could win a few stages here. The competition is there though. The french sprinter team send Demare, while the italian sprinter teams sends Viviani. Ricardo Martinez Machado will try to repeat his Gabon stage win and Ciolek will try to wash away the shame after Qatar. Matt Leigh is there for Drapac, Qatar was a bit tough for him, but he might do better here. Then there's names like Kakhi, Ferrari, Gasparotto, Dumoulin, they can score on the tougher finishes.
3rd place on the stage is great, 3rd on GC is amazing. Could you imagine if we also manage to win the Team competition? POINTS POINTS POINTS
(barring mishaps on the last stage that is)
