Greipel takes De Panne opener, race lead

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André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) sprinted to victory in the opening stage of the KBC-Driedaagse De Panne, but he did it the hard way, winning from a four-man breakaway which held on by the slimmest of margins.

The 28-year-old German had plenty left in the tank to outkick fellow escapees Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM), Dmitriy Muravyev (RadioShack) and Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) as the break was caught on the finish line in Zottegem. Westra's teammate Romain Feillu won the field sprint for fifth, credited with the same finishing time.

With the victory, Greipel also tops general classification and earns the first leader's jersey. Once time bonuses were factored in, Greipel leads Bert De Backer (Skil-Shimano) by three seconds and Westra by five seconds overall.

Fast and furious

Although the stage started in bright sunshine, with the riders clambering off the team buses earlier than usual in a bid to make the most of the conditions, the racing went from the gun with over 50 kilometres covered in the first hour.

A slight easing in pace allowed the group containing Jens Debusschere (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Laurens De Vreese and Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Bert De Backer (Skil-Shimano), Mickaël Delage (FDJ), Sébastien Turgot (Europcar), Aleksejs Saramotins (Cofidis) and Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM) to go clear at 77 kilometres and they established a lead of nearly three minutes before Rabobank took up the pursuit.

At the top of the Edelare the leaders had extended their advantage to four minutes and with 73 kilometres remaining the gap was down to just under two minutes

Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) was the first major contender to immediately try his luck showing all of the aggression that had almost carried him to the win in last week’s Gent-Wevelgem. However, unlike last week’s race, the Frenchman wasn't given room to manoeuvre and he and a small group were pegged back on the Leberg.

Quick Step was intent on making a race of it, though, and Gert Steegmans was the next rider from the Belgian squad to go clear. Like Chavanel he was heavily marked but his aggression strung out the bunch as many riders began to slip back.

Matt Brammeier (HTC-Highroad) and Michal Kwiatkowski (RadioShack) didn't allow the pace to drop once Steegmans was reeled in and built up a small lead. They were joined by a group that included Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) and André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) on the Valkenberg.

The German’s presence resulted in Brammeier sitting up with Muravyev, Gusev, Kwiatkowski and Sergent the only ones to persist. With 59 kilometres to go the foursome caught the lead group on the road.

Behind them a group containing Michael Matthews (Rabobank), Bert Grabsch and Brammeier (HTC-Highroad) and Steegmans broke clear, while Leif Hoste (Katusha) was involved in a crash, sustaining a serious face injury - his race over.

With 45 kilometres to race Grabsch’s group was caught, although along with Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM), Steegmans persisted in his pursuit and caught the lead group with 38 kilometres to go. At his point the leaders' gap had crept up to 1:35.

FDJ and BMC began to reduce the break's advantage and with the leaders dangling at one minute, Alessandro Ballan (BMC) attacked with Sébastien Rosseler (RadioShack) covering the move.

Thrilling endgame

With 25km remaining Westra broke the harmony in the lead group, but when he was brought back by Steegmans it was Greipel and then Gusev who launched moves. The pair were then joined by Westra and Muravyev, with the German sprinter dragging the break along 47 seconds up on the peloton as the leaders tackled the Valkenberg for the final time.

The decisive four-man escape pushed out a lead of more than one minute while a pair of chase groups tried to bridge across. The trio of Ligthart, Saramotins and Wallays came close and were then joined by a second group led by Sylvain Chavanel. This chase group, however, failed to reach the lead quartet and was neutralised with 6km remaining. At that point the break's lead had been reduced to 14 seconds and the catch by the peloton seemed a foregone conclusion.

The riders in the break, however, refused to cede and held a slender seven-second advantage with 3km to go. Steve Chainel (FDJ) jumped from the peloton but was brought back with 2km left to the finish.

Metre by metre the peloton clawed its way to the determined escapees, but the timing was just off. Just as the peloton was about to make contact Greipel launched his sprint from 200m out and made quick work of Westra, Muravyev and Gusev, all of whom managed to fend off the field sprint in their wake.