Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2012

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February 26, 2012, Kuurne, BEL, Road - 1.1

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Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage from Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. After the excitement and entertainment Omloop provided yesterday, we're looking forward to the second Belgian race of the weekend.

So far, after an hour of racing the peloton is still together. There have been a number of moves off the front but so far nothing has stuck.

You can check out today's official start list right here.

And here's a gallery of images from the start.

In terms of the course, it's not as testing as Omloop but there's still enough to make this a very difficult race.

It's a race suited to the sprinters in the field, although it's far from an easy race.

Cavendish on race radios not being in the race:

Bernhard Eisel:

Jens Debusschere crashed before the start of the race. The Lotto rider running out of road in the neutralized zone and crashing into a flower bed.

We have seven leaders off the front of the bunch now.

We're just waiting for a reference point but it looks like they've already got over a minute on the bunch. Six Belgians, one Frenchman in the move.

133km remaining from 198km

You could have bet your house on Nico 'Rambo' Eeckhout making it into the break.

Bernhard Eisel:

The bunch look comfortable with this move and it's going to stick. Sky, Lotto, Rabobank and Garmin will all have to chase.

What's interesting is Van Avermaet A. going on the attack and B that the bunch let him go. He's won a Classic and he's clearly in form - he took 5th yesterday.

Eeckhout, 41 now, turned pro in 1993 with Collstrop and has ridden for 7 different teams in his long career. He's scored wins in all but two season in his career and still has the hunger for these suicide breaks.

The lead is now 5:10 between the bunch and the seven-man break.

The next climb on the course is La Houppe. It's 1880m in length, with a max gradient of 10%. The average gradient is 4.8%.

From there the climbs come in fairly quick succession, before the long flat run in to the finish.

94km remaining from 198km

Van Avermaet is working well in the group and takes a long pull on the front. He's a danger man so it's no surprise that the bunch aren't giving him too much rope.

The smaller Belgian teams are getting some valuable airtime with this break though and they'll be looking to stretch this out for as long as possible.

My info on the climbs was all wrong. All wrong. The leaders are already on the Kruisberg. Honest.

Van Avermaet is setting the pace and it's causing a few riders to pop off the back. Rambo takes over and sets a more acceptable pace and all seven riders make it over the top together.

We spoke to Van Avermaet's mechanic at the start today. Apparently he had some problems with his stem yesterday and it kept shifting. Everything looks fine today.

Rollin lead the bunch over the top of the climb and briefly had a gap as Flecha couldnt hold his wheel.

The bunch are back together again now with the leaders now on the Oude Kwaremont.

The BMC ride has a gap now.

81km remaining from 198km

The peloton are on the climb now and Sky and Rabo, with Topsport are setting the pace.

Two riders from Rabobank are taking firm charge of the bunch and it looks like they've caused a major split with around a dozen riders going free.

Flecha is in second wheel, riding with his jacket in his mouth. He throws it to the floor now and grabs a drink. The Rabobank boys look back to survey the damage but ti looks like things are coming back together.

There are a few riders off the back but none of the main favourites.

Ballan, Boonen, Boom, Flecha, Summeren, there are a lot of dangerous riders in the group, with about 20 in total. Hayman is there. Degenkolb, Stannard and either Farrar or Rosseller. Gatto is also there.

The big losers look to be Lotto, who are chasing hard. Greipel has missed the split. In fact all the Lotto riders have.

The gap to the Boonen, Flecha group is about 150 meters

I think that is Farrar in the Boonen group, so he's done well to make it across.

Back in the main bunch and Lotto are having to do all of the work on the front.

73km remaining from 198km

Van Avermaet and Rambo have been caught by the rest of the early break.

This is a key section of the race. If the Boonen group can put another 45 seconds to a minute into Greipel by the time we reach the final climb they could decide the race.

It's a bit early to be using your sprint train but Greipel has no choice and the entire Lotto team or what's left of them are on the front of the chasing bunch.

69km remaining from 198km

The Boonen group has a minute on the bunch now.

Vacansoleil have come to Lotto's aid and put their men on the front. That's a bit strange as they've got men in the Boonen group.

Riders jumping onto the pavement in order to avoid rough cobbled sections.

64km remaining from 198km

The leaders approach the Tiegemberg, the penultimate climb of the race.

Farrar takes a turn on the front of the Boonen group. They have around 55 seconds on the Lotto led field.

Greipel has used his entire team but he's within 35 seconds of the Boonen group.

The leaders have been caught by the Boonen brigade.

58km remaining from 198km

And still Vacansoleil are doing all the chasing. Lotto are able to take some time to regroup for when the race comes back together.

Fouchard has crashed out of the race.

It's nearly all together again. The gap is just 18 seconds. Garmin and Rabobank are still working hard though, they're not letting this one go.

53km remaining from 198km

Eisel leads Cavendish right to the front of the bunch on the final climb and that's because Greipel has attacked.

50km remaining from 198km

The Cavendish/Greipel group is back together.

The lead group aren't working in harmony and they're attacking each other. And finally, after all that excitement, the race is coming back together. Slowly.

Bol (Rabobank) and Mol have a very slight lead now, both men had been in the Boonen group.

44km remaining from 198km

Chavanel is in a small chase group but it's going to be difficult because Sky are moving to the front

Dowsett is on the front for Sky and Eisel is barking orders but the Chavanel group are in fact pulling away. Hunt takes over from Dowsett.

Aliaksandr Kuchynski, Sylvain Chavanel, Nico Eeckhout, Jimmy Engoulvent, Wouter Mol, Sébastien Delfosse make up the break and they have 44 seconds.  Sky still leading the chase.

Dowsett is doing the job of keeping the break in check while Hayman goes back to the cars and collects bottles for the Sky team.

33km remaining from 198km

The leaders come through the finish for the first time. Chavanel leads them over the line.

No panic yet from the bunch and GreenEdge has moved their men close to the front as well. We've not talked about them much this weekend. Can they pull something out of the bag and collect their first win (for the men) in Europe.

Lotto lend Sky a hand on the front of the bunch, the gap at a 54 seconds.

Flecha goes back to the cars but Sky continue to set the pace on the front. The gap is still going up. It's at 58 seconds.

Crash. A couple of riders hit the deck after a right hand turn but everyone is back up. Barbe and Baugnies,  both of whom were in the early break were the ones that went down.

The leaders head through Kortrijk and their gap is at 58 seconds still.

Jan Ghyselinck (Cofidis) is also in the break. We missed him because that's the first time he's gone to the front.

23km remaining from 198km

20km remaining from 198km

17km remaining from 198km

The peloton have the leaders in sight as they cross the line for the second and final time before the end of the race.

14km remaining from 198km

Back in the peloton, the black jerseys of Team Sky are massed on the front. After facing some criticism for their showing in Qatar and Oman, this is a big chance for the Sky lead-out train to affirm itself. The world champion Cavendish is tucked in safely near the front.

12km remaining from 198km

10km remaining from 198km

9km remaining from 198km

7km remaining from 198km

Back in the bunch, Sky have safely negotiated a technical section without losing any carriages from their train and Cavendish remains in position.

That's more than can be said for Jimmy Casper (Ag2r-La Mondiale). He punctures at just the wrong moment. He won't make it back in time for the sprint.

5km remaining from 198km

The orange jerseys of Rabobank are trying to outflank Sky with a rival train for their man Mark Renshaw.

3km remaining from 198km

The FDJ-BigMat squad are up here mixing it with Sky. They have two fast men in the form of Yauheni Hutarovich and Arnaud Demare.

Andre Greipel has also made his way up towards the front, shepherded by Greg Henderson.

1km remaining from 198km

Cavendish launches the sprint with 300 metres to go...

Cavendish takes the win, with a very comfortable sprint. That result was never in doubt the moment he hit the front.

Sutton led that out perfectly for Cavendish and the Manxman will be delighted with the win and with the performance of the Sky train over the final 20km.

Hutarovich was the best of the rest in second, while his young teammate Demare looked to be up there as well. Kenny Van Hummel was third for Vacansoleil-DCM, but Andre Greipel appeared to get boxed in and made no impact in the sprint.

Result:

Result:

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne today. A fine win for Mark Cavendish, and an indication of his form just three weeks ahead of Milan-San Remo. Stay tuned to Cyclingnews for full results, report, pictures and reaction for Belgium.

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