Dwars Door Vlaanderen, 200km/124mi

- by Cathy Mehl

Pouring rain, wet roads but no lack of enthusiastic fans greeted the 171 riders competing in today's 63rd Dwars Door Vlaanderen. With 12 climbs on the 200km course there were plenty of opportunities to attack and break up the action on the fabled Belgian roads.

An early break after 34km of racing included Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis), Allan Johansen (CSC) and Martin Elminger (Ag2R) who managed to stay away throughout the majority of the race. A large chasing group included hard work put in by Team Astana's Grégory Rast before that effort was shut down. Soon enough another group of 8-10 chasers formed up and worked to close the gap to within 20 seconds with Team Astana leading the chase in the peloton an additional 30 seconds back. As the first chase group closed in on the trio up front at 9km to go Chavanel flew the coop and with his head down and pushing a big gear made a steady dash for the finish line.

Approaching the finish tape with a gap of 28 seconds, Chavanal had plenty of time to zip up his kit, pump his fists and blow kisses to the crowd, who were more than a little stunned to see the 28-year old Frenchman take the win on Belgian soil. The sprint for second and third went to Steven de Jongh (Quick Step) and former race winner Nico Eeckhout (Topsport) with Astana's Tomas Vaitkus grabbing the win from the bunch sprint for 13 place.

Beyond the Finish Line: Belgium is a cycling-mad country! With races coming every few days this time of year the cycling fans come out in droves even during the mid-week to pack the climbs and cheer the peloton. Despite the rain and usual cold weather, there is never a lack of enthusiasm for bike racing in Belgium.

Top Ten race results
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 4.32.27 (44.04 km/h)
2 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Quick Step 0.28
3 Niko Eeckhout (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
4 Andreas Klier (Ger) Team High Road
5 Allan Johansen (Den) Team CSC
6 Gorik Gardeyn (Bel) Silence - Lotto
7 Martin Elmiger (Swi) AG2R - La Mondiale
8 Guennadi Mikhailov (Rus) Mitsubishi-Jartazi
9 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank
10 Nick Nuyens (Bel) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone

Team Astana
13 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) 0.44
56 Michael Schär (Swi)
76 Grégory Rast (Swi)
80 Serguei Ivanov (Rus)
84 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) 2.17

Results provided by www.cyclingnews.com