Eneco Tour

Stage 4: St-Lievens-Houtem (Bel) to Roermond (Ned), 214.4 km

By Cathy Mehl

Stage 4 of the Eneco Tour rolled from Belgium back into the Netherlands on Saturday for a group sprint that saw New Zealand’s Greg Henderson of Team Sky take his fourth win of the season.  A perfect lead-out from teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen put ‘Hendy’ in the sweet spot to launch for a tight victory over Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano).  Straight but narrow roads created the setting for the teams of the fast men and Henderson made the most of the good conditions.  Retaining the leader’s jersey was Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) with three stages left to race.  Behind him is Koos Morenhout (Rabobank) and Boasson Hagen’s third place on the stage jumped him into 3-rd on the classification as well.  While Boasson Hagen is the defending champion in Eneco Tour, today Team Sky worked for the popular Henderson with just the result they were hoping for.

Team RadioShack’s Gert Steegmans had good legs today and worked hard in the main field to maintain a good position in the closing kilometers.  Steegmans sprinted up the middle of the course to take 7-th on the stage.  The best-placed Team riders are Andreas Klöden and Tiago Machado in 9th and eleventh on the classification. 

After the stage Team Director Dirk Demol said, “Steegmans positioned himself in the sprint. Good evolution and good for his confidence. Now he has to have a better result. That is his next step.  The main goal of our team here is Tiago and Andreas for a good GC. Tiago is a surprising guy.  He’s always laughing, always busy, jumping around in and outside the race.  Plus he’s always optimistic. And yesterday he was good on the cobblestones. It was the first time in his life that he saw a cobblestone and he finished in the first group! So good!”  Demol continued on a more serious note with, “The bad news is shoulder of Seba Rosseler. The combination of his injury of June in a collision with a car and maybe his position last week on training and in the race on his TT bike (silver in Belgian championship) has taken a toll. Let’s hope his season is not over.”

Tiago gets a feel for the cobbles for the first time on Stage 3

Sunny weather greeted the peloton of 152 on the longest stage of this year’s Eneco Tour.  Four riders comprised the break of the day and included Adriano Malori of Lampre and Mikhail Ignativev of Katusha where on the open, flat roads  the group established a time advantage of more than eight minutes. With 15km to go the gap was still 1:41 but Liquigas, Skil-Shimano and Vacansoleil put in strong pulls to help bring them back.  Once the peloton put full effort behind the chase, the gap plummeted and with 8km to go the escapees held only 35- seconds.   At 5km to go, Malori went solo from his former companions and held his position until the red kite when he was swamped by the main field and the stage was set for the group sprint.  Team Sky put their men on the front and Henderson had the legs to secure the well-deserved win for the British team.

Sunday’s stage 5 is 204km with short, steep climbs on the profile all day long.  The effort required for the climbs and the toll of five days racing could cause another reshuffling of the general classification when they reach Sittard.

Beyond the Finish Line:  The River Meuse flows in this area of the Netherlands and Belgium and is navigable over a substantial part of its total length.  “Mosasaurs” are large extinct marine lizards. The first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764. Mosasaurs are now considered to be the closest relatives of snakes.  Mosasaurs were varanoids closely related to terrestrial monitor lizards.

Top Ten Results

1              Greg Henderson (NZl) Sky Professional Cycling Team      4:46:46                   

2              Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Skil - Shimano                                

3              Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team                          

4              Alex Rasmussen (Den) Team Saxo Bank                                 

5              Robbie Mcewen (Aus) Team Katusha                      

6              Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                       

7              Gert Steegmans (Bel) Team Radioshack                                 

8              Elia Viviani (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo                                  

9              Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator                         

10           Allan Davis (Aus) Astana

Team RadioShack Results

41           Andreas Klöden (Ger)

51           Ben Hermans (Bel)

60           Tiago Machado (Por)

65           Gregory Rast (Swi)

96           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

141         Jason Mccartney (USA) 0:06:03

General Classification after Stage 4

1              Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia               18:32:17                

2              Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Rabobank        0:00:10  

3              Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team         0:01:24  

4              Svein Tuft (Can) Garmin - Transitions      0:01:26  

5              Lars Boom (Ned) Rabobank         0:01:32  

6              Richie Porte (Aus) Team Saxo Bank          0:01:35  

7              Dominique Cornu (Bel) Skil - Shimano     0:01:39  

8              Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto      0:01:42  

9              Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack                0:01:43  

10            Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo

Team RadioShack on General Classification

11           Tiago Machado (Por)  0:01:47

31           Ben Hermans (Bel)   0:03:01        

33           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)   0:03:10 

49           Gert Steegmans (Bel)  0:12:56   

61           Gregory Rast (Swi)   0:14:18 

141         Jason McCartney (USA) 0:30:16                

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson