Stijn Devolder (Radioshack) was by far the strongest rider at today's Belgian road race championships, the double Tour of Flanders winner leaving behind an impressive chase group comprising some of the country's finest cycling talent. Big favourite Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) finished second while Jan Bakelants made it two Radioshack riders on the podium.

Few riders have been through as many struggles as Stijn Devolder who suddenly lost all the power that saw him win two consecutive Tours of Flanders, two Belgian road race titles and aspire to grand tour glory. More than three years of meager results and plenty of criticism from team managers and the Belgian press followed but today the former classics star suddenly found back to his best in a very tough Belgian road race championships in the Ardennes.

And in a race where Lotto-Belisol lined up 19 riders and Omega Pharma-Quick Step 10, Radioshack proved that strength in numbers is not necessarily an advantage as Jan Bakelants finished 3rd to make it two riders from the Luxembourg team on the final podium - and the team had only entered 4!

The race was held on an extremely tough 13,8km circuit in the Belgian Ardennes that was to be covered 16 times to make it a 220km race. As expected, it developed into a race of attrition with riders constantly falling off the main group throughout the day.

With 48km to go, a small 18 rider group had emerged in the front, consisting of Gianni Meersman, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Serge Pauwels (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Gatean Bille, Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Gert Dockx (Lotto-Belisol), Greg Van Avermaet and Philippe Gilbert (Radioshack), Thomas De Gendt and Bjorn Leukemans (Vacansoleil), Devolder and Bakelants (Radioshack), Maxime Vantomme (Crelan), Kevin Seeldraeyers (Astana), Laurens De Vreese (Topsport Vlaanderen), Thomas Degand (Accent.jobs), Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb) and Sep Vanmarcke (Blanco). De Gendt had been a constant aggressor throughout the race, and he stated off the final action by going clear with Seeldrayers and Bakelants.

The trio was a strong one and built up a gap of more than 20 seconds while Meersman - one of the day's big favourites - asked teammates Van Keirsbulck and Pauwels - to chase hard. As the gap kept increasing, Van Den Broeck also asked Dockx to join the chase which stabilized the gap somewhat.

On a small climb with 31km to go, it was all over for Dockx who had used up all of his resources. His hard effort had, however, not been in vain as the front trio was brought back with 28km to go.

Lotto now went on the offensive as Bille attacked off the front on a small climb and he looked smooth as he started to build up a gap. However, Devolder knew that he had to win the race in his usual fashion - from a long-distance breakaway - and so he attacked just 2km further up the road.

The Radioshack rider immediately proved his strength, rocketing past the fading Bille and quickly building up a gap of more than 40 seconds. Bille was caught by the chase group which was still led by Pauwels and quickly paid the price for his efforts, falling off the pace.

As they passed the finish line to start the penultimate lap and so tackled the day's main climb once again, Van Den Broeck sensed the danger. The Lotto Tour de France captain upped the pace on the ascent but as no one wanted to contribute, he once again left it to the fading Pauwels and Van Keirsbulck to chase, thius allowing the gap to grow again.

With 20km to go Van Den Broeck could once again sense the danger and he made another try to up the pace. This time Gilbert responded by adding his teammate Van Avermaet to the chase and the hard pace saw Van Keirsbulck, Pauwels, Pauwels, Vantomme, De Vreese and Seeldraeyers fall off the pace while De Gendt had an extremely untimely puncture.

There was no concerted chase effort, and instead the riders kept attacking each other. Leukemans, Van Den Broeck, Gilbert and Van Avermaet all made small attempts but no one was able to get clear, thus allowing the pace to slow down and Pauwels, Pauwels, Vantomme and De Vreese to rejoin the chase group.

Pauwels and Van Avermaet both tried to chase but they were no match to Devolder who was more than 1.30 ahead of the chasers when he started the final 13km lap. On the final ascent of the main climb, the chasers kept attacking each other instead of working together to reel in Devolder.

Sensing that Devolder's win was safe, Bakelants attacked with 6km to go in an attempt to make it a Radioshack 1-2 . Behind, the chase group disintegrated as Leukemans and Meersman joined Bakelants while Gilbert, Van Avermaet, Vanmarcke and Van Den Broeck were left a little further behind.

Despite all the turmoil, there was, however, no one catching the lone Devolder and he soloed across the line to take his third stint in the Belgian champion's drikleur. Behind, Meersman gapped his companions during the technical final kilometer and took second while Bakelants won the sprint for third to make it two Radioshack riders on the podium. Vanmarcke, Gilbert, Van Avermaet and Van Den Broeck rolled in one by one a little later while De Gendt bounced back from his puncture to finish 9th.

An aggressive start

As expected the race was off to an extremely aggressive start and many riders were keen to join the early breakaway. In a championships race, team tactics are usually crucial and so it took some time for the escape finally to break clear.

Rob Peeters (Telenet), Pieter Serry (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Sander Cordeel (Lotto), Preben Van Hecke (Topsport), Tim De Troyer (Accent.jobs), Quentin Bertholet (Wallonie), Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto), Tim Wellens (Lotto), Jurgen Van De Walle (Lotto), Yannick Eijssen (BMC), Sebastien Delfosse (Crelan), Nikolas Maes (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil) and Kevin Hulsmans (Vini Fantini) were some of the riders who tried their hands in the early part of the race. However, it was not until defending champion Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), put down the hammer that the selection was made.

Boonen joined by two teammates

Boonen was joined by teammates Devenyns and Serry and the Lotto-Belisol climber Bart De Clercq in today's early move and they quickly built up a gap of almost three minutes. With the two strongest teams the only ones represented in the front group, it was unclear who had to close the gap.

It was the 5-rider Vacansoleil team that took up the responsibility to chase and they were quickly joined by Crelan which also had 19 riders in the race. Boeckmans, Willem Wauters and Klaas Sys were some of the riders to do much of the early work and for a long time they kept the gap stable at around 2.20.

More teams join the chase

Up ahead, De Clercq had no interest in cooperating with the Omega Pharma-Quick Step trio and so he just stayed in the wheels of his companions. At the same time, Sunweb-Revor and Topsport Vlaanderen sensed the danger and also started to chase with 90km still to go.

With 74km to go, Crelan decided to try another strategy as they launched Delfosse and Stijn Steels up the road. They were joined by Kenny Dehaes (Lotto), Vanmarcke and Van Keirsbulck while the peloton significantly upped the pace.

Constant attacks

That group was caught back but the action continued and riders started to fall off in large numbers as attacks kept going off the front. De Gendt was particularly aggressive but the most successful move was made up of Van Keirsbulck, Steels, Yves Lampaert (Topsport) and Vanmarcke and they were later joined by Bille.

Just as the quintet caught the front quartet, they were, however, picked up by the peloton and so it was all back together with 68km to go. De Clercq went directly to the front and set a hard tempo to discourage any further attacks and tire out Van Den Broeck's rivals.

The next crucial attack was put in by Maarten Wynants with 55km to go and the Blanco rider drew clear a small group. While Wynants was unable to keep up the pace himself, riders kept bridging the gap, thus creating the decisive 18-rider group from which Devolder later broke clear and took his third ever national title.

Result:

1. Stijn Devolder 5.46.19

2. Gianni Meersman +0.57

3. Jan Bakelants +0.59

4. Bjorn Leukemans

5. Sep Vanmarcke

6. Philippe Gilbert +1.03

7. Greg Van Avermaet +1.05

8. Jurgen Van Den Broeck +1.11

9. Thomas De Gendt+2.13

10. Laurens De Vreese