A few flat stages, a time trial and a hilly stages - The Tour of Belgium is definitely not for the climbers, but is designed for the 'complete sprinters' - those who can sprint, time trial and survive small climbs.
This stage, though, doesn't have any hills, so anyone with sprinting capabilities stand a chance. And the same goes for anyone who isn't afraid of attacking. On this first stage, the break of the day included the following riders: Cioni, Timofeev, Nydam, Anderegg, Vingerling, Jeannesson - and Wallays alone behind them.
Wallays eventually joined the riders in front, and they reached a gap of 8'30 before the peloton started working, mainly Molteni and Wiggle. With 80 km to go, the gap was down to 5'20, and in front, Vingerling had just won the 1st intermediate sprint of the day ahead of Timofeev and Nydam. They also managed to 'survive' until the 2nd and last intermediate sprint which was won by Jeannesson ahead of Vingerling and Timofeev. Shortly after, the group was caught (with c. 15 km to go).
With the breakaway back in the peloton (and dropped), the teams with sprinters started setting up their trains. As expected, many teams wanted to involve, and in front, one would find Castaneda, Bongiorno, Baumann, Usov, Chacon, Casper, Ciolek - among many others.
Castaneda was by the far the best placed rider, but due to a horrible lead-out from Gardeyn, he missed out. Instead, it became a fight between Casper (who got a great lead-out from Usov), Ciolek, D'Amore and Haedo.
Ciolek was by far the strongest today, though, and took the 1st stage of Tour of Belgium!
Unfortunately, I didn't get a screenshot of it as I wanted to wait until the replay - which I shouldn't since it crashed after the riders had crossed the finish line.
