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Eneco Tour of Benelux

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Marcel Kittel
Whilst most riders are taking time off after the Tour de France and the Olympics, the world tour kicked off in Benelux last night with some big names taking to the start list.
The seven stage tour of the European Customs Union is a primarily sprint based tour with no real mountain stages on offer for any climbers. In the past three years Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen has dominated the event, twice taking the overall General Classifications and claiming three points’ victories.
For those watching the tour for the first time, the General Classifications leader wears a WHITE jersey, the Points Leader a RED jersey and the Young Rider wears GREEN.
For this year’s tour some big names have backed up from the Olympics to compete, but the main story is the return of Alberto Contador from a doping ban. The Saxo Bank rider will return from his ban that ruled him out of this year’s Tour de France and Olympics, and he will be hoping to put in a strong showing.
In the General Classification, riders to look out for include Contador, Sylvain Chavanel, David Millar and Jack Bauer of Garmin-Sharp, Taylor Phinny of BMC Racing, Sebastian Langeveld of Orica-GreenEdge and Jonathan Castroviejo of Movistar. But with the stages being primarily flat, I expect this jersey will be highly unpredictable and may end up with one of the sprinters.
In the sprints category I expect Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre, Mark Renshaw of Rabobank and Tom Boonen of Omega Pharma to be high in the classifications.
For a full list of the starters: http://www.cyclingfever.com/editie.html?_ap=startlijst&editie_idd=MjI5MTc=
Overnight the first stage crossed through Zeeland along the coast of the North Sea. Whilst the generally flat 203.9km stage was contested on open roads, the strong ocean winds would be one that would trouble the riders. The early parts of the stage saw two riders escape to a lead of 8’32” with 90km to go, until a large number of teams took control and worked together to pull them back, eventuating in the two riders (Scheirlinck and Urtasun) conceding capture as they. As the peloton started the finishing circuit of 55km, the sprinters took control as the race become very controlled with the change of direction inland preventing any affects of coastal winds.
With 21km to go young Belgian rider Tim Declerg managed to escape but was quickly brought back by the peloton. From there Team Sky and Omega took charge as many dropped riders fought to stay in touch. BMC Racing decided to move ahead into the final 10KM as numerous other teams jostled for the main pace setting positions. Rabo Bank came back into race control in the final 2km as the peloton was disrupted by a large crash halfway back in the field. From there on in Argos-Shimano, the Dutch Professional Continental team, took the remaining group into the final kilometre, with their German sprinter Marcel Kittel holding of RadioShacks Nizzolo to take the stage win.
Tonight’s stage is a short team time trial of 18.9Km with the start and finishing in the Limburg city of Sittard. This trial will be seen as a preview of the World Cup Team Trial to be held in September on the same roads. Whilst not identical to the World Cup course, which is around 3 times as long in distance, teams will have to take technical points through three villages where the straight roads in-between will see maximum speeds.
As the Eneco tour is usually a tour decided by mere seconds, this may be seen as a decisive stage in deciding the overall classifications.
For Australians there are 8 riders competing for different teams.
Christopher Sutton (SKY), Luke Roberts and David Tanner (Saxo-Bank), Graeme Brown and Mark Renshaw (Rabo-Bank), Heinrich Haussler (Garmin),and, Leigh Howard and Luke Durbridge (GreenEdge).
For those interested in catching a bit of the tour in-between Olympic events, I do believe it is on Eurosport from about 9:30pm, but I cannot confirm if it is live or not.
The post Eneco Tour of Benelux appeared first on Green and Gold Cycling.

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Despite the flat terrain, the Eneco Tour’s seven day journey through Belgium and The Netherlands provided plenty of entertainment.
Stage One review can be viewed here:http://www.greenandgoldcycling.com/eneco-tour-of-benelux
Stage Two: Team Time Trial 18.9km

Australian side Orica-GreenEDGE took out the stage two team trial in Sittard by one second over Omega Pharma-QuickStep, with Russian team Katusha coming in third, a further two seconds back. The relatively flat course presented an opportunity for well drilled teams to form good rhythms, yet many teams failed to impress in the favourable conditions, with both Euskaltel and Argos-Shimano putting in disappointing displays. GC favourite, American Taylor Phinney’s chances were dealt a massive blow when a miscommunication between his fellow BMC riders caused a crash, resulting in the team finishing last, and putting Phinney’s chances on the back burner. Orica looked very impressive in their ride, which may be an ominous sign to their competitors at the upcoming World Championships. Belgian Jens Keakelaire was the first rider to cross the finish line meaning he took the leaders jersey from Marcel Kittel for the time being.
Stage Three: Riemst-Genk 188km

In a fairly uneventful stage, Rabo Bank sprinter Theo Bos grabbed his fourth stage win of the season after being able to withstand John Degenkolb and Australian Heinrich Haussler in the final bunch sprint. This put the Belgian in the lead of the point’s classification, five points clear of his closest competitors. More bad news came for Taylor Phinney as he had to scramble to get back into the pack after puncturing his tire with five kilometres to go.
Stage Four: Heers- Bergen 213km

Marcel Kittel added to his early stage win by snatching another victory in a sprint finish. The German attacked from the pack with 200m to go and could not be caught by the frantically chasing Nizzolo and Roelandts. The big news of the day was Omega sprinter Tom Boonen taking the leader’s jersey by challenging and winning an intermediate sprint 16km from the finish, giving him 2” of time.
Stage Five: Hoogerheide- Aalter 184km

Despite the efforts of three breakaway riders, who seemed doomed to fail from the beginning, another bunch sprint saw Italian Giacomo Nizzolo of Radioshack pip Roelandts on the finishing line. In a highly entertaining race, the course took the riders in and out of the city of Aalter, taking to some nasty country roads that saw many riders come to a standstill to get around the sharp turns. After catching the breakaway with less than 20km to go, all the sprinting sides fought their way to the front in what was a frantic affair with many riders falling off the pace, resulting in the peloton being stretched a good 500m from front to back. In the final 200m Nizzolo made his charge to take the win over the fast finishing Roelandts.
Stage Six: Ardooie Individual Time Trial 17km

In the vital stage, it was Orica-GreenEdge who took the spoils again with Canadian workhorse Svein Tuft surprising everyone to take five seconds of the seemingly unbeatable time set by Taylor Phinney and taking the leaders jersey in the process. But it was the riders who came in 6-10 that put out an ominous warning to their competitors leading into the final stage. The pre-race favourites of Sylvain Chavannel, Alberto Contador, Luke Dubridge and Jonathan Castroviejo all finished strongly and now sit in the top 10 in the standings, with Contador the last “49 off the pace. Given the mountainous nature of the final stage, it gives a chance for these riders to show their climbing prowess and take the stage win along with the overall classifications lead.
Stage 7: Maldegem-Geraardsbergen 207km

The Eneco organizers have saved the best for last in a stage that resembles the narrow mountain climbs of the Tour of Flanders. Once the peloton caught the seemingly suicidal breakaway early, Contador came into his own on the first circuit on de Muur. On the decent he breaks with BMC’s Burghardt before a larger group comes up. The climb though had devastated the field, leaving many riders behind the field. Contador continues to look in vintage form giving us a preview of what we can see in the Vueleta, as he still presses with 19km to go. After many dummy attempts to break from riders, Jurgen Roelandts goes off the front as the field starts to spread again before the final ascent. BMC took control, looking for a stage win, just one rider off the front. Roelandts is caught at the start of the last climb with 6km to go. BMC has four riders at the head of the race, as a lot of the other riders fall away. Lars Boom gets himself in a great position as he goes off the front with Ballan of BMC who are in the clear with 4km to go. BMC riders in the group behind start slowing the pace, as Tom Boonen took it upon himself effort to be made, eventually goes out on the front and works himself. Small cobble roads lead into the finish as crash at the back of the field between Haussler and a Liquigas rider. In the end Boom gives Ballan the stage win, as he claims the Tours overall classifications victory.
Final Standings

(1) Lars Boom, (2) Sylvain Chavanel, (3)Svein Tuft, (4)Niki Terpstra, (5) Alberto Contador
The post Eneco Tour Review appeared first on Green and Gold Cycling.

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