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Punching the Air
Omega Pharma Quickstep had the perfect set up for the day with three teammates in the final break of the day. First it was Tom Boonen going on the attack and softening up the other teams. He even succeeded in isolating last year's winner, Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing). Once the vastly reduced peloton joined all of the attackers, OPQS was able to send another guy off on his own. However this one stuck for Niki Terpstra as he left the group with around 3 kilometers left to ride. He got such a gap that he was able to ride into the velodrome that marks the final 750 meters of the race on his own. And so much time that he spent the finishing straight celebrating his victory that had eluded him on previous attempts. The podium was completed in a bunch sprint with John Dekenkolb (Giant Shimano) claiming second just out sprinting Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) who had to settle for third. Oddly, Peter Sagan, could only manage a sixth place (5th amongst the sprinting group).