Conor Dunne spent a large chunk of the 198.6km Binche-Chimay-Binche up the road in Belgium today during a very testing late season outing.
Dunne (Israel Cycling Academy) went clear with Lasse Norman Hansen (Corendon-Circus), Nils Politt (Katusha Alpecin) and Gianni Marchand (Cibel).
While they pulled out a gap of almost four minutes, the fact there were just four in the breakaway worked against the leaders.
However, them combined well in very breezy and wet conditions before the racing reached the finishing circuits for five laps.
Just as the breakaway got the circuits they were overhauled after Groupama-FDJ had done the bulk of the work to first control and then close the gap.
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The hard finishing circuit feature a number of hard drags and cobbled sections in other areas, including at the the finish.
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The terrain, speed and conditions combined to ensure the field split to pieces, with a 17-man breakaway out front at the finish; a chase group getting across to a 10-man move.
On the wet cobbles the finishing sprint was a dramatic one, with Dunne's team mate Tom Van Asbroeck squeezing through for victory.
He just about saw off Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), who looked the strongest of the breakaway men.
After his breakaway efforts former Irish champion Dunne was a non-finisher as was national TT champion Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo).
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