After Greg Van Avermaet conquered the polka dot jersey on the Muur van Geeraardsbergen, Tim Wellens has been in the lead for a while. Wellens will start the day off as a leader anyway.
Only buddy Thomas De Gendt was able to ride Wellens today, but the Belgian is not in the long escape.
Of the six leaders, one clearly has the ambition to get involved in the fight for the bulbs. Natnael Berhane from Cofidis Solutions Credits was sixth with thirteen points before the start of the race.
On the first two climbs of the day, the Eritrean took the full booty: one and two points respectively. In total there are only seven points to earn on Monday. Berhane will not get any further than place five with a maximum of twenty points, but could make a goal of the mountain classification the following days.
Position before the start of ride 10
1: Tim Wellens (43)
2: Thomas De Gendt (37)
3: Giulio Ciccone (30)
4: Xandro Meurisse (27)
5: Dylan Teuns (13)
6: Natnael Berhane (13)
