Gent Wevelgem, 219km/130mi

By Cathy Mehl

Coming to the line in a six-man group, Austrian Bernhard Eisel (HTC-Columbia) jumped off the wheel of former teammate George Hincapie (BMC) to take the win in Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday.   Hincapie looked strong on the run to the line, but when he revved up at 300m to go it was too soon for the USA national champion to hold all the way.  Former teammate Eisel saw his chance, coming around Hincapie at 200m and holding off Sep Vanmarke (Topsport-Vlaanderen) and Philippe Gilbert of Omega Pharma-Lotto.  Hincapie held on for fourth.  Historically known for the challenging course with wind usually a factor, Eisel noted that in nine starts this was only his second time to complete the race.

Team RadioShack endured a day of crashes with half of the team riders suffering mishaps sometime during the race, some more than once on the day.  Top ‘honors’ go to Markel Irizar who went down three times along with Fumy Beppu who hit the deck twice.  Both were unable to finish.  Gregy Rast, Fuyu Li and Sébastien Rosseler also suffered crashes during the race.  Of 194 starters only 49 arrived within the time limit.  Sixty-nine arrived outside the limit and 76 abandoned the race.

With six riders off the front and the final 50km left to race, team Liquigas put their men up front to blow the race apart.  A selection was made that included some 20 riders, but none of them wore the colors of TRS.  Although some of the group chased back and reformed, an eventual group of ten made up the final selection of the day.  Included were Hincapie, Eisel, Gilbert, Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana), Tyler Farrar (Garmin), Oscar Freire and a strong Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) fresh off his win last weekend in Dwars door Vlaanderen.  But with 16km to go Breschel flatted and lost his chances while Freire, Farrar and others eventually lost contact too, leaving the final six that arrived together in Wevelgem.

It was the biggest win in the ten year professional career of Eisel, and a just reward for his many dedicated lead outs for teammate Mark Cavendish.

Top Ten Results

1              Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team HTC - Columbia           5:17:12                   

2              Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator                    

3              Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                          

4              George Hincapie (USA) BMC Racing Team                             

5              Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo                 0:00:02  

6              Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto      0:00:07  

7              Maxim Iglinsky (Kaz) Astana        0:00:51  

8              Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank    0:01:01  

9              Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions                  

10           Luca Paolini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone

Team RadioShack Results

HD          Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)  0:22:14

HD          Fuyu Li (Chn)

HD          Grégory Rast (Swi)

DNF       Fumy Beppu (Japan)

DNF       Markel Irizar (Spa)

DNF       Dmitriy Muravyev (Ast)

DNF       Sébastien Rosseler (Bel)

HD = Outside the time limit

DNF = Did not finish