Mark Cavendish missed out on a fourth victory in the Scheldeprijs.race in Belgium after being pipped by Marcel Kittel.
The race started in Antwerp and saw the riders facing 204.2 kms of road and cobbles before the finish in Schoten on a cold day with light snow in the air.
Gregory Rast and Ireland's Matt Brammier had two leading groups on the road but they merged with just over 30kms gone to form a big group of leaders that comprised of Grégory Rast (RadioShack-Leopard), Matthew Brammeier (Champion System Pro Cycling Team), Jacobus Venter (MTN – Qhubeka), Mart Ojavee (Champion System Pro Cycling Team), Kenneth Van Bilsen (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise), Stefano Borchi (Vini Fantini), Arman Kamyshev (Astana), Christopher Juul Jensen (Saxo Bank), and Koen Barbe (Crelan - Euphony).
A 4.45 lead was whittled down and with 87kms to go and thanks to work from Omega Pharma Quick Step and Fabian Cancellera before he crashed, everyone was back together with 97kms left.
Borchi, Brammeier and Vandousselaere took control of the race and created a lead of 3.16 with 72kms of racing left.
They stayed clear until the junction was made with 29kms to go and FDJ and Omega Pharma took back the lead at the front of the peloton.
There were just over fifty riders left inside the final five kilometres. Mark Cavendish was left on his own with no team mates with 200m to go and looked out of it but he fought his way through and was just pipped by Argos Shimano's Marcel Kittel on the line with Barry Markus third