Eneco Tour

Stage 5:  Roermond to Sittard, 204 km/127mi

By Cathy Mehl

It was a smart move by neo-pro Jack Bobridge that put him in the winning position at the Eneco Tour’s stage 5 in Sittard on Sunday afternoon.  Coming from a strong track background in pursuit, the 21-year old Australian attacked with 2km to go and basically motored away from the front group to take his first win as a professional.  Coming in four-seconds behind him were Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel Euskadi) and Thomas De Gendt (Topsport Vlaanderen) with the overall race lead staying with HTC-Columbia’s Tony Martin.

Team RadioShack’s Gert Steegmans continues to improve on form each day and was part of the chasing group that just missed reaching the leaders.  “We only missed 15-seconds to bring back the breakaway,” said the Belgian sprinter.  “It’s a pity when you see that I was so fast at the finish line.  In the beginning we tried to motivate other teams to help us chase the breakaway but we had to do it alone.  Only later, when riders came back, we had to chase too but we were just too late.  I cannot complain.  My confidence is back.  Now it’s only a question of winning a race again.  The team was good too.  Vaitkus and Rast showed that they are really good ‘motorbikes’.”  Each day on his Twitter account Tomas Vaitkus remarks that another stage at the “Moto GP” is finished, referring to the fast speeds each day in the Eneco Tour.  Teammate Andreas  Klöden agrees, saying, “Again a very fast stage today with some rain. The last 5k were very fast and crazy roads. The legs were good today.”  Klöden remains the best-placed Team rider in 9th with teammate Tiago Machado holding strong in eleventh.

A big group of 11 riders originally made up the break of the day after 10km of racing but short, steep climbs throughout the course broke up the effort and some riders dropped back to the main field, leaving a solid seven working to stay away.  Bobridge was part of the group and they built a time advantage of just over four minutes.  The Shack put plenty of fire power on the front to bring them back and at 20km to go the leaders still held 1:42.   But the group in front were quite aggressive and worked hard to stay away, still holding 40-seconds with 7km to go with the gap quickly closing.

Lunchtime for Ben Hermans

Bobridge had been active most of the day, following the moves and contributing to the effort of his breakaway.  Eyeing his companions, the Aussie rider waited until a moment of inattention from the group and put in his attack, using his track skills to put in a great turn of speed that was enough to stay away for the win.

Monday’s stage is the last road course before the final time trial on Tuesday brings the Eneco Tour to a conclusion.

Team Note: The line-ups for the next races are: Tour du Poitou-Charentes (Fra), 24-27/08/10  Riders: Fumiyuki Beppu, Markel Irizar, Geoffroy Lequatre, Sérgio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popovych, José Luis Rubiera, Jesse Sergent & Haimar Zubeldia. Director: Alain Gallopin.  Also the  Classic de l’Indre / Châteauroux (Fra), 29/08/10  Riders: Fumiyuki Beppu, Markel Irizar, Geoffroy Lequatre, Sérgio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popovych, José Luis Rubiera, Jesse Sergent & Haimar Zubeldia.  Director: Alain Gallopin 

Top Ten Results

1              Jack Bobridge (Aus) Garmin - Transitions               4:45:38                   

2              Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi   0:00:04  

3              Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator                               

4              Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator                         

5              Gorik Gardeyn (Bel) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                              

6              Dominik Nerz (Ger) Team Milram             0:00:08  

7              Gert Steegmans (Bel) Team Radioshack                0:00:15  

8              Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                     

9              Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank                      

10           Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team

Team RadioShack Results

39           Andreas Klöden (Ger)

42           Tiago Machado (Por)

48           Ben Hermans (Bel)  0:00:37 

77           Gregory Rast (Swi)  0:02:35

81           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

141         Jason McCartney (USA)  0:20:06

General Classification after Stage 5

1              Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia               23:18:10                

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)

30           Ben Hermans (Bel)  0:03:23

38           Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)  0:05:30

45           Gert Steegmans (Bel)  0:12:56 

58           Gregory Rast (Swi)  0:16:38 

139         Jason McCartney (USA)  0:50:07                                                               

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson