Tour de Wallonie

Tour de Wallonie
Stage 5:  Chaudfontaine to Welkenraedt, 164.7km/102mi
By Cathy Mehl

Food poisoning hit Team RadioShack and hit them hard – four of the remaining six riders were unable to continue on the final stage at the Tour de Wallonie, leaving Sam Bewley and Geoffroy Lequatre to finish today’s stage. 
Russell Downing (Team Sky) put in a strong late kick to take the final stage win and the overall final victory as well, making for a different leader each stage of this year’s race.   Second on the stage went to Stefan Van Dijk (Verandas Willems) and The Shack Alain Gallopin’s nephew Tony Gallopin of Cofidis taking third.

Tour de Wallonie

Stage 4: Vielsalm to Villers-le-Bouillet, 168km/104mi
By Cathy Mehl

It was the fourth and hardest stage in the Tour de Wallonie with Frenchman Laurent Mangel of Saur – Sojasun taking the victory ahead of Marco Marcato in a sprint from the leading group.  Mangel became the new race leader, the fourth one in this year’s race.
It was a stage full of climbs on Tuesday for the peloton of 110 riders.  An early break of two went away and held a gap of almost four minutes while Quick-Step and Katusha worked from the main field.  Once the race came back together a small group went away on the final two climbs in the last 20k, with Mangel emerging the victor on the line.

Tour de Wallonie
Stage 3:  Andenne to Hotton, 180.2km/112mi
By Cathy Mehl

It was another sprint win and another race leader for the Tour de Wallonie on Monday’s stage 3 from Andenne to Hotton.  Some 70 riders came in together to contest the sprint won by Kristof Goddaert of AG2R, who became the third wearer of the leader’s jersey as well.
Today’s course was tougher than the first two with numerous hills to climb before arriving in Hotton.  After an hour of racing two riders escaped, including Tony Gallopin, nephew of Team RadioShack Director Alain Gallopin.  But the duo were never allowed too much time, topping out at just over two and a half minutes to the main field.

Tour de Wallonie
Stage 2: Braine-le-Comte to Tubize, 201.8km/125mi
By Cathy Mehl

It was another day for the sprinters in the Tour de Wallonie with Stefan Van Dijk of Verandas Willems taking the bunch gallop.  Team RadioShack’s Gert Steegmans was right in the mix once again, this time taking sixth in the group, up one slot from Saturday’s effort.
The Shack’s Geoffroy LeQuatre suffered a flat in the final 10k and after a quick tire change was paced back to the group by Team Director Viatcheslav Ekimov, along side other riders in the same situation.  The race judges deemed that this action was wrong and penalized “G4” 20 seconds, plus gave Eki a monetary fine.   With LeQuatre the top contender in this race for The Shack, a disappointed Ekimov pointed out that other directors were pacing back their riders too, but only he and Quick Step were fined.  Geoffroy will have some time to make up when the race heads to the mountains on Monday.

Tour de Wallonie
Stage 1: Mouscron to Lessines, 184.4km/115mi
By Cathy Mehl

While part of Team RadioShack are racing and winning the Teams classification in the Tour de France, another seven riders directed by Viatcheslav Ekimov raced in the opening stage of the 2010 Tour de Wallonie.   There were three climbs on Saturday’s course but the day belonged to the sprinters with Italian Danilo Napolitano of Katusha taking the stage win, his second victory of the season. Team RadioShack’s Gert Steegmans was seventh.  Napolitano wears the first leader’s jersey of the five-day stage race.
Director Ekimov was pleased with Steegmans' performance, pointing out that after Gert’s spring injury it has been a long road back for the team sprinter: “It’s been a long break without racing. He needs to warm up.”  Building confidence and getting his sprinting legs under him will be a big goal for Steegmans this week.