While the race has a flat parcours, the often poor weather and long sections of cobblestone roads which are traditionally incorporated make for a difficult race, rarely featuring an en masse sprint finish.

Right from the start, several riders tried to be part of the traditional early breakaway, however, the peloton looked to be letting no one go.

The lead of the group never grew very big but in the chasing peloton a lot of the favorites were looking at each other.

In the end, only a few of the favorites got away from the group: Tom Boonen, Leif Hoste, Marcus Burghardt and Staf Scheirlinckx.

O'Grady had actually dropped from the lead group because of a puncture but had gotten back together with a few others, namely Juan Antonio Flecha, Steffen Wesemann and Björn Leukemans.