Harelbeke -> Harelbeke
The peloton lined up for what is often dubbed as a “mini Flanders” on Friday afternoon, in a race infamously named after a motorway. From the start there were lots of attacks and Team Picnic PostNL looked to infiltrate the breakaway. Making their way into several moves that didn’t manage to snap the elastic, the team unfortunately missed the main group of six that went clear. Sean Flynn and Henri-Francois Haquin joined one other rider in pursuit, and although they managed to close the gap down to around 50 seconds at one point, they were never able to make contact with the head of the race. In the peloton, things already exploded with over 80 kilometres to go and Frits Biesterbos impressed by holding onto the bunch for as long as possible as it thinned down to around 40 riders. He ultimately had to let go of the group over the top of the Oude Kwaremont and his chasing group agonisingly never made it back to the peloton when things regrouped.