Mass Sprint Finale in Knokke-Heist
By: Chris Brewer
Another treacherous day for the riders contesting the Tour of Belgium as the peloton hurtled en masse to the finish line. An early breakaway of Niko Eeckhout, Gregory Habeaux and Benjamin Gourgue was neutralized with 12km to go. Team Vacansoleil worked hard to get a mass sprint but their sprinter Borut Bozic was beaten by Skil-Shimano’s Kenny Van Hummel, winner of the first stage in the 2010 Tour of Picardy.
“This finish was really too dangerous for me”, commented The Shack’s Gert Steegmans, still on the rebound from a broken collarbone in Paris-Nice. “The roads were too narrow in the last kilometers, I cannot jeopardize my season again. My condition is growing and I hope to show very soon that I can win again and be a candidate for the Tour de France. Sébastien Rosseler guided me to the front, but I told him not to press on any more, it was just too dangerous.”
“Tomorrow in Mechelen, it will be better for us”, said team director Dirk Demol. “Then we will take our chance. Today was a finish for kamikaze guys. The most important thing from today was that nobody from our team crashed.”
There were no major changes in the GC as 154 of the 161 riders finished with the same time. Philippe Gilbert retains his black leader’s jersey and Team RadioShack’s Tomas Vaitkus is still third.
Stage 2 Result:
1 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Skil - Shimano 3:57:53
2 Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
3 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Saur - Sojasun
4 Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Team Katusha
5 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
6 Enrique Mata (Spa) Footon-Servetto
7 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Jong Vlaanderen - Bauknecht
8 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Verandas Willems
9 Rafai Chtioui (Tun) Acqua & Sapone - d'Angelo & Antenucci
10 Sven Nys (Bel) Landbouwkrediet
General Classification
1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 7:29:55
2 Rony Martias (Fra) Saur - Sojasun 0:00:10
3 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Team RadioShack
4 David Boucher (Fra) Landbouwkrediet 0:00:14
5 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Verandas Willems
6 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Skil - Shimano 0:00:23
7 Niko Eeckhout (Bel) An Post - Sean Kelly 0:00:25
8 Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team 0:00:27
9 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Saur - Sojasun 0:00:29
10 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Verandas Willems 0:00:30
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