Dwars door Vlaanderen,  204km/127mi

By Cathy Mehl

In a perfectly timed attack with 20km to go, Danish champion Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) rode away from the field and held his lead all the way to the line, taking a solid victory with seven seconds over Bjorn Leukemans (Vacansoleil) and Niki Terpstra (Team Milram).   Team RadioShack’s Geoffroy Lequatre showed especially good form as well as a motivated  drive to get results, ending up 25-th in the group sprint.

Team Director Dirk Demol said, “The result does not reflect it, but our riders were in the picture today.  Especially Lequatre was good again.  He tried to get a top 5 place, but was caught in the end.  But he tried which is very good.  Finally he was the only TRS rider in the group who could sprint for second place.  Before that, Rosseler and Muravyev were there too, but they were dropped on the Nokereberg with 9k to go.  Seba and Dimi worked hard to come back earlier but didn’t have enough left at the end.  Our other riders were good too.  This was not a good course for Hermans of course.  He is looking forward to the Criterium International.”

Twenty-one teams  participated in the 65^th “Across Flanders” one day semi-classic race.  Riding without leg and arm warmers, the peloton enjoyed good weather and dry roads on the cobbles of Belgium.  Four riders went away with 78km to go and held a gap for more than 20 kilometers.  Chasing riders fractured behind the leaders, as groups formed and fractured as the miles rolled on.  Markel  Irizar put in an attack with 52km to go before Fumy Beppu found  himself in a breakaway at 48km to go.  The Shack riders looked strong and attentive all day.

Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) helped drive the pace to set up Breschel’s attack, taking a moment to pull out of line and view the competition while Breschel easily rode away from the front.  A group of three chased but top contender Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and other pre-race favorites didn’t chase. With 16km to go Lequatre put in a strong attack to chase Breschel and the chasing trio.  Geoffroy worked incredibly hard to reach the front groups and wasn’t able to reach them, but his solid form bodes well for upcoming races. 

Breschel continued with his head down and while obviously tiring, he easily kept his winning margin to hold off the chasers.

Team Note: Bad luck for Gregy Rast today.  He rode into a ditch next to the road and crashed just 2k before the Eikenberg when the race exploded.  He was not injured but had to chase the rest of the day.  But he’ll be back for both E3 and Gent-Wevelgem in the coming days.

Top Ten Results

1              Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank    4:49:37                   

2              Björn Leukemans (Bel) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team       0:00:07  

3              Niki Terpstra (Ned) Team Milram                               

4              Steve Chainel (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom                        

5              Mathew Hayman (Aus) Sky Professional Cycling Team                     

6              Luca Paolini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone                              

7              Wouter Mol (Ned) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                                

8              Tom Veelers (Ned) Skil - Shimano                             

9              Stijn Vandenbergh (Bel) Team Katusha                  

10            William Bonnet (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom

Team RadioShack Results

25           Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)

30           Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) 0:01:00                                 

31           Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)

50           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)0:04:22

57           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn)

79           Ben Hermans (Bel)

97           Grégory Rast (Swi)