Race day started with unexpected sunshine, but the rain and snow returned later in the day to make this a true classics race over slippery cobblestones.

Starting out, the riders set a quick pace as nearly 97 km were covered in the first two hours. When the nasty weather started, several took advantage of the slowdown in the peloton to make a breakaway. Janek Tombak (Mitsubishi), Tom Veelers (Skil Shimano), Sven Renders (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Vincent Jérôme (Bouygues Telecom) went off the front at 111km and quickly built a 40 second lead. By the second climb of the day, the Nokereberg, they had increased their lead to 2 minutes.

For the next 50 km or so, the breakaway group was more or less able to hang on to their lead. They split in two for a while, but ended up reforming at 175km, where they were joined by Robert Wagner of Skil-Shimano.

On the long straight approach to Oude Kwaremont, the peloton chased down and caught the break. Andreas Klier (High Road), Tomas Vaitkus (Astana) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) were the leaders on the climb, but couldn’t hold onto the lead on the descent.

As the race approached the Koppenberg climb, things started to get serious. The serious contendors, including Leif Hoste (Lotto), Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), Tom Boonen and team-mate Stijn Devolder (Quick Step), Fabian Cancellara (CSC), Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) and Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank) went to the front. Over the Koppenberg, Boonen was the man, as some of the other riders had to unclip and walk up the cobbled road.

Just before the Taaienberg, Langeveld and Hushovd went off, but were rejoined by the pack on the descent. Oscar Freire (Rabobank) made a move with 53 kilometres to go. George Hincapie (High Road) went after him, but was not able to catch him. Freire was able to maintain an advantage of 23 seconds over the chasers with 50 kilometres to go.

At the base of the Leberg climb, Freire was caught by a Quick Step led chase group. Stijn Devolder was on fire. Initially, only Phillipe Gilbert (Francaise de Jeux) and Langeveld were able to keep up, but they were later joined by George Hincapie (High Road), Karsten Kroon (CSC) as well as Ballan, Cancellara and Boonen. Langeveld tried to go solo, but Cancellera was having no part of that and quickly reeled him back in.

The Liquigas and Cofidis teams sent a chase group after the leaders. They caught them at the foot of the Eikenmolen (25 kilometers to go), but Devolder kicked in the afterburners and pulled away to make his run for the win. There were challenges on the final climb of the day (Bosberg), but Devolder managed to maintain a lead of 15 seconds over Langeveld and 30 seconds over the pack. With just 7 kilometers to go, Flecha, Rast and Tombak captured Langeveld. The chase now trailed Devolder by 19 seconds.

With just 4 kilometers remaining, Flecha tried for the lead, with Nuyens chasing. They never caught Devolder, but Nuyens made it past Flecha to take second place.

Tom Boonen finished with the pack, 21 seconds back from the lead. I’m thinking that there might be some dissention on the Quick Step bus tonight as Devolder was probably supposed to be working for Boonen, not going for a solo win.