BMC's Greg Van Avermaet has won the Grand Prix De Wallonie in Belgium
It took over an hour of rrixacing for the break to form on this UCI European Tour race from Chaudfountaine to Citadelle de Namur which was first competed for in 1935 and won by Gustaaf De Greef, with Jan Bakelandts winning in 2013.
When the break did form, François Bidard of AG2R, Guillaume Martin of FDJ , Clément Koretzky of Bretagne Seche Enviroment, Loic Chetout of Cofidis & Thomas Degand of Wanty Group got away, to be joined by Serge Dewortelaer of Veranclassic and they were able to take a lead of 3.30 in a race which is a couple of kilometres short of 200kms in length.
With eighty kilometres to go on a sunny day with no wind, that lead had dropped to 1.47 and a urther twenty three seconds were knocked off that lead, seven kilometres later.
Omega Pharma Quick Step continued to work on the front of the peloton and the lead to the six escapers continued to come down and at the 57.6km to go mark, it was all over.
Chetout tried to stay away before being brought back.
With 46.1kms to go, there was a massive crash in the peloton with Romain Bardet and about twenty riders going down or having to get off their bikes and run through a field before getting back on with the race.
This allowed five riders in Laurent Didier of Trek Factory Racing, Pierre Luke Preichon of Bretagne, Rudy Molard of Cofidis, Jelle Wallays of Topsport, Quenton Jauregui of Roubaix Metropole and Julien Berard of AG2R were able to take an eighteen second lead and then twenty more seconds on a flat road heading through Mettet.
That break was ended with 22,3kms to go and about thirty five riders were on the front. Frank Schleck, the Luxembourg champion was next to go as the race started to go uphill followed by Gianluca Brambrilla of Omega Pharma Quick Step and then Ivan Rovny of Tinkoff Saxo, who had both been disqualified for punching each other during the Vuelta a Espana.
Brambrilla led as five more riders came into view. Greg Van Avermaet of BMC joined Schleck, Brambrilla and Rovny and then led a group of Schleck, Jan Bakelants of Omega Pharma Quick Step and Jelle Vanendert of Lotto.
This group were forty three seconds ahead of the second group which was led by AG2R with ten kilometres to go.
Having a lead of thirty one seconds going into the final four kilometres, the quartet out front took on the Rue du Saint Martin climb up to the Citadel on cobbled roads.
With 2.4kms left, the four started atttacking each other. Seven hundred metres later and Jan Bakelandts attacked but was quickly marked as the second group started to close in.
Vanendert, Bakelandts and Van Avertmaet were joined by Tony Gallopin going under the flam rouge.
Bakelandts opened up the sprint but it was Greg Van Avermaet who took the final corner and won the Grand Prix de Wallonie ahead of Gallopin, Bakelandts, Vanendert and Rory Sutherland.
Source: DSG
