Hello and welcome to Eurosport's LIVE coverage of the Tour of Flanders

STIJN DEVOLDER: "I don't have the talent of a Tom Boonen or Philippe Gilbert. I'm a hard-working man who's found the means to make up his own small palmarès," was the Vacansoleil man's very modest assessment of his own career. While his role as a secret weapon in the Quickstep team behind Boonen certainly helped him in his two wins here in 2008 and 2009, he remains a danger, though he will have to outwit the field again if he's to make it a hat-trick of wins, as he's unlikely to outpower them.

The five leaders crossed the top of the Nokereberg, the second of the 18 hills, with 6'00" advantage over the bunch. This will no doubt extend further, as the pack are due to enter the feeding zone in about half an hour.

PHILIPPE GILBERT: In any discussion of the best one-day riders in the world, Gilbert's name must be given due consideration. He has wins in the Tour of Lombardy, Amstel Gold and Paris-Tours to his name, and certainly has the ability to win the Tour of Flanders. The many hills make this a more attractive race to him than Paris-Roubaix, and at 28, the Lotto man is just coming into his prime. A real danger.

Our five leaders have stretched their advantage to 3'16". Brits Hunt and Hammond of course were on the same team up until the end of last season, when the former signed for Team Sky.

TOM BOONEN: Despite putting in a highly impressive performance, Belgium's golden boy was made to look like a hobby cyclist by Cancellara on the Kapelmuur last year, though he's still the man best equipped to take on "Spartacus". His win at Gent-Wevelgem was a welcome confidence-booster, and if it comes down to a small group sprint, there will be nobody quicker. Whether he can hang onto Cancellara's rear wheel over the final few hills again is likely to prove the decisive factor in the race.

Now that the race is beginning to settle down, let's have a closer look at the favourites here today, beginning with the man they all fear: FABIAN CANCELLARA. He's the defending champion, he's strong as an oxe, and his performance in winning the E3 Prijs at Harelbeke prompted Stijn Devolder to say: "His performance was the strongest I have ever seen in my career. I was left speechless. All the riders in the front group couldn't believe what they saw. It took me another day to recover from that."

Patrickfigueiredo is right on the money with the trivia question. Leif Hoste is indeed the only man (other than Boonen, of course) with three podium finished to his name, the most recent of which came back in 2007.

A mass "bathroom break" in the peloton is the sure sign the the lead quintet will indeed be granted the freedom to go clear, and their lead quickly grows out to 1'30".

The five out front aren't working as well together as they could to stay clear, though they've still managed to increase their lead to 45 seconds over the peloton, who seem content to let them go.

Finally it looks like we have a break that might well stick - and there are two Brits in there!!! Roger Hammond (Garmin-Cervelo), Jeremy Hunt (Sky), Stefan van Dijck (Veranda's Willems), Mitchell Docker (Skil-Shimano) and Sébastien Turgot (Europcar) are the men out front, and they have half a minute on the pack.

Okay, first trivia question of the day. Tom Boonen has been on the podium three times, (two wins and a second-place last year), but one other man in this field also has three podium finishes to his name. Who is he?

Another four riders, including the persistant Steven Caethoven, try their luck once again, but to no avail. The pace in the peloton is still extremely high, at 50km/h.

Skil-Shimano's Dominique Cornu now tries his luck, but can't stay clear. Hardly surprising, as the first 25km were covered at an average speed of 50km/h.

Koen Barbé, Steven Caethoven and Roger Kluge have opened up a small gap on the peloton. Jaroslaw Marycz and Jesus Herrada then bridge the gap, before the speed of the peloton ensures the quintet are quickly caught again.

Belgium have absolutely dominated this race throughout its 94 editions. They have a massive 61 wins, with Italian riders claiming ten victories, Dutch riders claiming nine wins, followed by France with three.

Stijn Devolder's successive wins here in 2008 and 2009 came as the Quickstep team used their strength in numbers to outwit Pippo Pozzato and other favourites, who spent their time marking Tom Boonen. Today, Devolder takes to the start in the colours of the Vacansoleil team for the first time. He fell at the Three Days of De Panne, but insists that will not affect him. "My preparation [for Flanders] was already finished. I'm ready to race," he said.

This is one race where HTC's Mark Cavendish knows he has pretty much no chance of winning, but he's still looking on the bright side. "It is in this sort of event that I can repay all the work they did for me in the past," he said on the start line.

Rather surprisingly, no rider has won this race more than three times, though there are four riders who have a hattrick of wins, namely Achiel Buysse, Fiorenzo Magni, Eric Leman and Johan Museeuw. Two men in today's field have two wins (Tom Boonen and Stijn Devolder), while Alessandro Ballan and Fabian Cancellara have one win apiece.

One of the local fans is displaying a banner saying "Please have mercy, Fabian!" The Swiss powerhouse has been touted by all and sundry as the man to beat here, to such an extent that some observers were contemplating the possibility of the peloton clubbing together to work against him. Boonen, paid short shrift to such speculation, though, saying: "Everyone's speaking about that, but it's something that just doesn't happen in the big one-day classics. Everyone rides his own race."

No sooner has the race begun than a Skil-Shimano rider tries to go on the attack, but the peloton are moving along pretty briskly, and he can't get clear.

The start was given at 8:45 this morning, with the mayor of Oostkamp firing the starter's pistol.