Omega Pharma - Quick Step Cycling Team finished the 169km Stage 1 of 4 Jours de Dunkerque with three riders in the top 10, representing seven out of 10 breakaway riders who stayed away from the field on Friday.
Gert Steegmans was the Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team top finisher, in 6th place as the race came down to a sprint. Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) attacked within the final kilometer, but John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) — a top sprinter in the group — countered and beat out Danilo Napolitano (Acqua & Sapone) and Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ-Big Mat) for 2nd and 3rd.
Jerome Pineau and Steegmans made an original chase group, which caught Damien Gaudin (Team Europcar) as he was the lone remaining breakaway rider from an original group of five with 11km left to go. Zdenek Stybar, in his first race back after recovering from cyclocross season, bridged to the chase group and winning breakaway, along with Voeckler and approximately five others on the final climb of the stage. Pineau finished 9th, and Stybar 10th.
Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team spent much of the day near the front, helping the peloton chase down breaks.
