A few brave men in Flèche

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A few brave men, that's how one could describe the riders who tried to avoid the massive bunch sprint up the darn steep Mur of Huy. One of them was Tejay Van Garderen, the young American who races for the HTC-Highroad team.

Van Garderen attacked the peloton together with some outsiders after the penultimate climb of the Mur, with almost 30km to go.

"It's hard to make the difference but you've got to try. You have guys like Contador, Gilbert, Rodriguez and Sanchez here who are really specialists on these uphill finishes. You've got to change the tactic and try something different," Van Garderen told Cyclingnews after making it to the top of the Mur.

Van Garderen's breakaway companions were Thomas Lövkvist (Sky), Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha), Vasil Kiryenka (Movistar), Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) and Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel).

"We had a good group," he explained. "There were really strong guys but there were times when we weren't working well together. Two guys went off the front [Kiryenka and Lövkvist] and then we weren't working so well together."

Just like all his other breakaway companions the 22 year-old was caught back in the descent towards Huy and eventually he finished 127th at seven minutes from winner Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

"It's a hard course to stay away with the big downhill into Huy," Van Garderen conceded. "The goal was really just to try. If you sit in and wait to get beat then that's shit. So you might as well try it. It felt good," Van Garderen looked back on his racing actions. "I look forward to Liège. It suits me a little bit better and it's less tactical too and a bit more selective. If you have good legs it's easier to make the difference."