Eneco Tour

Stage 2: St. Willebrord (Ned) to Ardooie (Bel), 198.5km/123mi

By Cathy Mehl

Yesterday’s stage winner Robbie McEwen (Katusha) almost made it two-in-a-row, but German André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) was the man of the day, winning the group sprint by almost a bike length over the Aussie.   Team Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen took third place.  Team RadioShack’s Tomas Vaitkus was in the thick of the action, sprinting for 14-th as the best effort from the Team riders.  There was no change in the overall as Canadian time trial champion Svein Tuft (Garmin) retained the leader’s jersey after his prologue win in the opening stage on Tuesday.

A trio of riders went away to establish a gap of more than seven minutes.  The three escapees were Lampre’s Vitally Buts, Miguel Minquez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Stijn Neirynck (Topsport) and worked hard to build a gap of more than seven minutes.  At 40km to go the gap was still over four minutes while Garmin did a lot of work at the front of the main field to control the time advantage.  By 25km to go the gap was only one minute and steadily plunging downward. 

A technical local lap around the city of Ardooie began at 15km to go.  Streets narrowed and compressed the peloton into much smaller spaces as the main field took the lefts and rights through the city and into the neighboring farming regions.  As the peloton came back together near 5km to go, HTC-Columbia hit the front to drive the pace, but they were way too early and soon lost control to Team Sky.  Team RadioShack riders were close to the front as well.   Sky launched Boasson Hagen and the Norwegian rider looked strong, but Greipel came hurdling through the group to take the win just in front of a hard-charging McEwen. 

Friday’s stage 3 is 191.8km/119mi in Ronse, Belgium and includes twice over the Oude Kwaremont, the second time leaving just 11km to race, a perfect opportunity for a strong rider to break away and ride solo to the line. 

Top Ten Results

1              André Greipel (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia           4:46:50                   

2              Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha                      

3              Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team                          

4              Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank                      

5              Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ                        

6              Enrique Mata Cabello (Spa) Footon-Servetto                       

7              Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step                           

8              Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo                    

9              Allan Davis (Aus) Astana                                

10           Kenny De Haes (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto

Team RadioShack Results

14           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

27           Gert Steegmans (Bel)

42           Ben Hermans (Bel)

54           Sébastien Rosseler (Bel)

59           Gregory Rast (Swi)

63           Tiago Machado (Por)

83           Andreas Klöden (Ger)

142         Jason McCartney (USA)

General Classification after Stage 2

1              Svein Tuft (Can) Garmin - Transitions      9:09:42                   

2              Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team         0:00:03  

3              André Greipel (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia           0:00:04  

4              Jos Van Emden (Ned) Rabobank               0:00:05  

5              Lars Boom (Ned) Rabobank         0:00:06  

6              Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Rabobank                            

7              Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia               0:00:07  

8              Richie Porte (Aus) Team Saxo Bank          0:00:09  

9              Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram         0:00:11  

10            Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia         0:00:12

Team RadioShack on General Classification

17           Gert Steegmans (Bel)  0:00:16

19           Andreas Klöden (Ger)   0:00:17

29           Tiago Machado (Por)   0:00:21 

91           Sébastien Rosseler (Bel)  0:01:23 

95           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)  0:01:31

104         Ben Hermans (Bel) 0:01:35

106         Gregory Rast (Swi)  0:01:38

136         Jason McCartney (USA)  0:03:17                                                                                               

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson