SéBASTIEN ROSSELER WINS THE BRABANTSE PIJL
Team RadioShack’s Sébastien Rosseler won the historic 50th edition of the Brabantse Pijl in Belgium on Wednesday. In true fighting sprint the Belgian rider beat his two companions Thomas De Gendt (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Jurgen Vandewalle (Quick-Step). After his earlier stage win in the Tour of Algarve it is Rosseler’s second victory of the season.
After 30 kilometers of racing, Rosseler was in the attack with Vandewalle. Later they were joined by Niko Eeckhout (An Post), Alexander Gottfried (NetApp) and Enrico Peruffo (Carmiooro). The latter three riders were dropped in the demanding six local laps around Overijse (with 24 climbs).
“I did my work the whole day,” commented Rosseler. “Maybe one lap I recovered a bit. I didn’t want to attack earlier as I knew it was better if we stayed together. With three of us, we had a chance to stay in the front. Fighting alone against the rest would have been impossible. Can you imagine that I chased Vandewalle in the beginning only to be in an early breakaway, to have some TV publicity for our sponsor, knowing that we would be caught by the peloton? I had such bad legs this morning in the beginning of the race. This is incredible.”
Team Director Dirk Demol added: “When we saw that the break got 8 minutes and 40 seconds, I started to believe in a happy ending. The chase behind by other teams was never well organized. Séba had some difficulties in the end, but that bad moment passed. I told him to stay in the back the last kilometer. We knew that the last 200 meters suited him well. The only unknown factor was that young rider from Topsport Vlaanderen. He appeared to be very dangerous in the end.”
The victory in the Brabantse Pijl is the eighth but nicest professional victory for Rosseler.
“He deserved this,” continued Demol. “I told Séba to believe in it. This is a big compensation for everything that went wrong for him in the classics so far. When you don’t expect such a victory, it is twice as nice.”
“Flat tires and crashes ruined my Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. This is a nice compensation, also for the work I’ve done last winter,” concluded Rosseler.
Result: Brabantse Pijl (Leuven-Overijse)
1 Sébastien Rosseler (Team RadioShack); 2 Thomas De Gendt; 3 Jurgen Vandewalle; 4 Paul Martens 00:41; 5 Philippe Gilbert; 6 Thomas Voeckler; 7 Bjorn Leukemans; 8 Greg Van Avermaet 00:55; 9 Oscar Freire; 10 Daniel Moreno
After last year’s continuous bad luck with various crashes and injuries, Horner came storming back into the season with excellent form. Before heading to the Tour of California, Horner will participate in the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. “With the same ambition to win," continued Horner. “I crashed very bad in Liège last year in the Tour of Spain, but that had nothing to do with ‘the’ Liège-classic. If you are not motivated for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, it’s time to retire. My moment hasn’t come yet."
Result Stage 6: individual time trial Orio-Orio, 22 K
1. Chris Horner (Team Radioshack) 32:33:00; 2. Alejandro Valverde 00:08; 3. Maxime Monfort 00:13; 4. Michael Rogers 00:18; 5. Beñat Intxausti 00:21; 6. Samuel Sánchez 00:23; 7. Marco Pinotti 00:25; 8. Joaquín Rodriguez 00:33; 9. Jean-Christophe Péraud; 10. Andreas Klöden (Team RadioShack) 00:34
Final General Classification
1. Chris Horner (Team Radioshack) 23:27:30; 2. Alejandro Valverde 00:07; 3. Beñat Intxausti 00:58; 4. Joaquín Rodriguez 01:06; 5. Jean-Christophe Peraud 01:10; 6. Marco Pinotti 01:18; 7. Sandy Casar 01:47; 8. Samuel Sánchez 01:58; 9. Robert Gesink 01:59; 10. Dries Devenyns 02:27
