The second of three classic cycle races in the Ardennes saw 197 riders (25 teams of eight) in a 198km race through the Walloon region of Belgium from Charleroi to Huy.
British interest included Sky's Bradley Wiggins, Steve Cummings and Chris Frome, but it was a quintet of David Loosli (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Dimitri Champion (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Benjamin Gourgue (Landbouwkredit), Stephane Auge (Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne) and Giuseppe Palumbo (Acqua & Sapone) who broke away for over 100km.
That was reduced to a trio of Loosli, Champion and Auge who were caught. Loosli stayed with the leaders which now included a four man group containing Ag2R-La Mondiale's Frank Schleck,and Alexandr Klobnev.
With 10km to go, the gap back to the peleton was twenty two seconds and was led by Andy Schleck, who was trying to slow the pace, so his brother could get further away.
Kolobnev had attacked twice already and the Katusha rider from Russia went clear for a third time with just over 4km to go.
Everything was pulled back and in the final kilometre, Andreas Kloden from Lance Armstrong's Team Radioshack made a bid for glory. Up the Huy hill they went with Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans in pursuit.
It was the World Champion from the BMC Racing team who got over the line to take the victory from Joaquin Rodriquez and Contador.
In the women's race, Nicola Cook, whose father and grandfather are from Coventry, finished second.
On Sunday, the third classic, the Liege- Baston- Liege will take place. You can see the race live on Eurosport.