Philippe Gilbert (OmegaPharma-Lotto) won the Brabantse Pijl, the race that marks the transition between the cobbled and hilly classics. The Belgian outsprinted compatriot Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil-DCM), who suffered so much bad luck in Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix, in a two-up sprint at the end of the race; Anthiny Geslin (FDJ) led the rest of the chase group home 1’02” behind.
The course was made up of a long out and back loop from the start in Leuven, south of the Belgian capital Brussels, before taking on five 12.7km finishing circuits, based on the climbs of the Hagaard, Herstraat, Ijskelderlaan and the Schavei. The finish line was in Overijse, just after the summit of the Schavei.
The early breakaway came from Geoffroy Lequatre (RadioShack), Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM), Julien El Fares (Cofidis), Andrea Pasqualon (Colnago-CSF Inox) and Thomas Bonnin (Skil-Shimano). With Rabobank leading the peloton the six riders managed to get three minutes ahead, but it was not to last and the gap was closed as they approached the finishing circuits.
With 70km to go only Lequatre and Pasqualon were left with Kenny Dehaes (OmegaPharma-Lotto); Dirk Bellemakers (Landbouwkrediet) jumped across, but the break was over soon afterwards.
Lequatre had another go, with Boy Van Poppel but they were only able to get a handful of seconds and were pulled back by the Vacansoleil-DCM team.
On the climb of the Schavei, just before the start of the five finishing circuits, Bram Tankink (Rabobank) got away and was pursued by a number of others. As he climbed the Hagaard he was joined by Dries Devenyns (Quick Step), Johnny Hoogerland and Björn Leukemans (both Vacansoleil-DCM), Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Anthony Geslin (FDJ), making a new group of six out front with just over 60km to go.
Having missed the break OmegaPharma-Lotto was working on the front of the peloton but, with two riders up there, the Vacansoleil-DCM team was hovering around to disrupt as much as possible. The group’s advantage quickly grew to around 20 seconds but didn’t grow much wider.
On the Heerstraat, Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) leapt off the front of the peloton and, seemingly effortlessly, made it across to the leaders.
The two Vacansoleil-DCM riders seemed to be the keenest to make the breakaway stick and briefly pulled away from the other five on the flat section between the climbs. The rest soon got back up to them though, and the increase in impetus began to open the gap over the peloton more rapidly.
Craig Lewis (HTC-Highroad) and Kevin Reza (Europcar) counterattacked on the Ijskelderlaan and set off in pursuit of the leaders. The new duo managed to get within 20 seconds, with the peloton drifting backwards; as the front six crossed the line with four laps to go it led the two chasers by 32 seconds though, and the peloton by 50.
Several riders seemed determined to either bring the peloton up to the leaders or breakaway themselves; Vacansoleil-DCM was quite happy with its position in the race, with two riders in the break of seven, and so it sat on anybody that tried to move. With the flurry of chase attempts though Lewis and Reza were swallowed up by the peloton once more.
With Vacansoleil-DCM stifling any attempted action in the peloton, the break’s advantage grew to 1’16” with 45km to go.
More attempts were made to escape the peloton, from Landbouwkrediet, Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator and Garmin-Cervélo, but any attempt was now marked by Vacansoleil-DCM, FDJ and Rabobank.
Across the line, with three laps to go the gap was almost static at 1’15”.
Gilbert, like the two Vacansoleil riders, seemed to be determined that this was the winning break; as he climbed the Hagaard on the front of the group he gestured to the moto drivers in front of him to show a blackboard with the time gap.
Because the race is not in the WorldTour, no radios are allowed.
With 33km to go, on a flat section between climbs, Luis León Sanchez attacked the peloton in a bid to join teammate Tankink up front. As the peloton reeled him back in again after the Heerstraat, Sanchez’ teammate Oscar Freire ramped the pace up with gritted teeth, but was unable to escape the marking of Vacansoleil-DCM’s Marco Marcato.
On the long Ijskelderlaan Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step) managed to escape the clutches of the peloton; he was joined by Gianni Meersman (FDJ) and, as both of them had a teammate up front, they worked together and began to gradually make progress on the seven leaders.
The next to attack was Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), at the foot of the Schavei, and he made quick progress on Pineau and Meersman. The two chasers crossed the line with two laps to go 1’11” behind he lead group, with Van Avermaet just seven seconds behind them; the peloton followed at 1’30”, 12 seconds behind the BMC rider.
Pineau and Meersman were in no mood to wait for the BMC rider though, so Van Avemaet sat up after the Hagaard and was quickly caught by the peloton; the front of which was now strung out in a long line as Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator tried once more to inject some impetus into the chase. Despite the Flemish team’s best efforts though, the gap remained 1’40” with 20km to go, with the two chasers just over a minute behind the seven leaders.
On the cobbled Herstraat, where most riders rode on the smooth sidewalk, Meersman put in a big turn and he and Pineau were now under a minute behind; with less than 20km to go though, it was still a big ask for them to catch up.
On the Schavei for the penultimate time Leukemans suddenly accelerated, with Gilbert on his wheel, and the two of them quickly distanced the others on the way to the line to take the bell. As they crossed with one to go they had put 12 seconds between themselves and the Tankink and Hoogerland, Devenyns and Geslin were a little further back, but Zingle now seemed to have cracked
Pineau and Meersman were 1’10” behind the two leaders, with the peloton now at 2’20”.
Free of the five others Leukemans and Gilbert worked together well over the first half of the lap and with 5km to go they led them by 50 seconds. On the Ijskelderlaan Tankink set off in pursuit of the final place on the podium, and was marked by the seemingly exhausted Hoogerland; on the narrow roads at the top of the climb they were joined by Geslin, with Devenyns seemingly dropped.
With 2km to go Gilbert decided that he was going to work no more and sat on Leukemans’ wheel as they rode through the centre of Overijse. The Vacansoleil-DCM rider seemed happy to be doing all of the work though and turned the corner at the bottom of the Schavei in front.
The two riders took the climb side by side, Leukemans seated and Gilbert out of the saddle, with neither wanting to attack first.
Finally, just as they took the final corner with 300m to go, Leukemans made his move. Gilbert bided his time though and overtook the Vacansoleil-DCM rider with apparent ease with 150m to go and sat up to take what looked like a simple victory, several lengths clear.
Over a minute later Hoogerland was the first of the chasers to open up his sprint but was unable to hold off Geslin, who took the final podium place. Tankink was fifth; Devenyns came over in sixth, with Zingle not far behind him. Meersman led Pineau over the line, with the peloton sprint taken by Simon Geschke (Skil-Shimano), who outpaced Freire.