More hard-fought Belgian racing. Mostly cobble-less but good anyway.
Podiumcafe likely suspect: Lloyd Mondory
Official site , Startlist , Raceinfo
Live video:15:00 CET (09:00 US EST, 01:00 AUS EDT)
Video: steephill , cyclingfans , Procyclinglive , Sports Livez.
Results!
Excellent race today. Le Samyn is typically Belgian, flat and exposed, so you had your big peloton and your escapees dominating the race. With about 28km to go the efforts of the big teams (mostly Garmin and FDJ) paid off as the early break was reeled in, but the last half hour consisted of one depleting break effort after another. The sprint happened, but it took a lot of work to bring it about, and Garmin, for one, seemed to pay the price with no positioning in the last km. FDJ took advantage, however, sending Arnaud Demare at the right time on the tough, uphill drag to the line, where Demare came around Kris Boeckmans of Vacansoleil for the victory. Since this is an FSA-DS cat-6 race, here's your top five:
- Arnaud Demare, FDJ
- Kris Boeckmans, Vacansoleil, s.t.
- Adrian Petit, Cofidis, s.t.
- Anthony Ravard, AG2R, s.t.
- Giacomo Nizzolo, RNT, s.t.