Andre Greipel wins the opening stage of the Tour of Belgium 2012
Andre Greipel of Team Lotto Belisol wins the opening stage of the Tour of Belgium and bagged his eighth victory of the season.
He completed the 162 kilometre pursuit to Buggenhout in a quickest time of 3 hours, 33 minute and 11 seconds and occupied the top position.
Danilo Robert Van Hummel of Team Vacansoleil-DCM finished at the second position while Kenny Robert of Team Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling and Jacopo Guarnieri of Team Astana achieved the third and the fourth positions.
The 29-year-old was happy with his performance and is looking good for the coming stages of the event.
“It wasn't an easy victory, but winning is winning," Greipel cited.
"I had few advantage at the finish line, but was surprised that Napolitano threw his hands in the air. For myself, I wanted to wait for confirmation”.
"It was a sprint with wind coming from the other side, which made me hesitate to go”.
“The team worked great. Everybody did exactly what we had discussed before the race, and that makes me very happy”.
"We got in front at about one kilometer and a half before the finish, after some other guys had done their work in the earlier pursuit,” he concluded.
The German started the 2012 season with a first place finish at the Cancer Council Helpline Classic and also bagged three stages at the Santos Tour Down Under.
He secured the first and the fourth stage during the Tour of Oman and succeeded at the second stage of the Tour of Turkey 2012.
Greipel is now leading the stage 1 classifications with an impressive margin of 4 seconds over Danilo Napolitano of Team Acqua & Sapone.
Kenny Robert Van Hummel Vacansoleil-DCM, Egidijus Juodvalkis of Team Landbouwkrediet-Euphony and Simon Geschke of Team Argos-Shimano hold the next three positions in the respective order.
Top 20 results after the first stage of the Tour of Belgium 2012 are as under,
1
André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol Team
3:33:11
2
Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
3
Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
4
Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Astana Pro Team
5
Adam Blythe (GBr) BMC Racing Team
6
Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
7
Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda's
8
Baptiste Planckaert (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Euphony
9
Robin Stenuit (Bel) Wallonie Bruxelles - Credit Agricole
10
Tom Meeusen (Bel) Telenet - Fidea
11
Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Euphony
12
Wietse Bosmans (Bel) BKCP - Powerplus
13
Adrien Petit (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
14
Jim Aernouts (Bel) Sunweb - Revor
15
Andrew Fenn (GBr) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
16
Nikolay Trusov (Rus) RusVelo
17
Jetse Bol (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
18
Roy Jans (Bel) An Post - Sean Kelly
19
Jake Keough (USA) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
20
Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
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