The Grand Prix de Fourmies covered 205 kilometers in Northern France near the Belgian border. With numerous short climbs, the course offered a real classic terrain. Bora-Argon 18 lined up with the same team as in yesterday's Brussels Cycling Classic and with Daniel Schorn, a rider of the team jumped into the group of the day. Schorn won the sprint classification of the race.

The six-man lead created a gap of more than five minutes before the WorldTour teams around Etixx-Quick Step took over the chase. 30 kilometers from the finish, the escapees were caught again and a large group of about 20 riders counter-attacked immediately.

Many riders in this group tried to prevent a sprint through attacks, but only the attempt of Fabio Felline (Trek) in the final kilometer was successful. He was able to save a little lead to the finish line ahead of the fast approaching field. Michael Schwarzmann, who always rode in a front position in the field in the last kilometers, was boxed in and finished in 19th place.

"Daniel has made it into the group of the day, which was very strong. He then even won the sprint classification and was awarded on the podium. Overall it was a very fast race, in which we wanted to focus on Michael in the bunch sprint. After the group with Daniel was caught and the new large group went, we missed this attack. This shouldn’t happen actually. Consequently, Michael rode very carefully in the field and was always just behind the chasers. Unfortunately, he lacked the support in the finale to position optimally for the sprint and to score a better result", Sport Director Steffen Radochla concludes the race.