GP de Fourmies

Fourmies, 200km/124mi

By Cathy Mehl

It was a re-energized Team RadioShack in Sunday’s GP de Fourmies.  While yesterday’s race of Paris-Brussels was not particularly a success for The Shack, today the team was active and very present the whole day in the north of France. 

“I asked our riders to save their forces for the finale and it worked out,” explained Team Director Dirk Demol.  “Michal Kwiatkowski attacked and was joined by four others.  When they were caught, Sam Bewley was very attentive and went in the breakaway with seven other guys.  When the peloton was almost upon them, Sam continued on alone.  He was finally caught at 10k from the finish in Fourmies.”

At that point, there were more attacks and again Kwiatkowski went with three other riders.  They stayed in the front until the last kilometer, setting up another sprint, just like last year’s race.  Included in the group were Romain Feillu, two-time winner and Team RadioShack’s own Robbie McEwen.  But McEwen was again put in a bad position, this time by a maneuver of Alexander Kristoff (BMC). McEwen finish 8th.  The surprise victory went to 26-year old Frenchman Guillaume Blot of Bretagne-Schuller. 

Michal Kwiatkowski covered all the moves today

Sam Bewley had plenty of attacking action in his legs

Top Ten Results

1              Guillaume Blot (Fra) Bretagne - Schuller     4:49:48  

2              Alexander Kristoff (Nor) BMC Racing Team                           

3              Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Veranda's Willems - Accent                             

4              Adrien Petit (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne                         

5              Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Big Mat - Auber 93                                

6              Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ                        

7              Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team                     

8              Robbie Mcewen (Aus) Team RadioShack                               

9              Cyril Lemoine (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                             

10            Kenny De Haes (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto

Team RadioShack Results

27           Evgeny Shalunov (Rus)

56           Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol)

65           George Bennett (NZl)     

66           Ivan Rovny (Rus)

94           Sam Bewley (NZl) 0:01:18

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson