Daniele Bennati wins third stage as Van Leijen takes overall in Tour De Wallonie 2011
Leopard Trek team’s Daniele Bennati won the third stage of Tour de Wallonie 2011 between Sombreville and Perwez on Monday, July 25. Joost Van Leijen maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The 30-year-old Italian road cyclists took a total of 5 hours, 26 minutes and 25 seconds to cover the distance of 224.4 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Bennati told the media, “The team was excellent today. They did a really good job. They were in complete control during the final kilometres and set me up perfectly for the win. It’s an important victory for me and my teammates.”
Recently, Bennati took the eight stage of Tour of Austria and first, third and fifth stage of Circuit de la Sarthe. He also grabbed second place in Gent-Wevelgem.
Danilo Napolitano of Skil – Shimano was runner-up and Alexander Kristoff of BMC Racing was in third place with the same timing of the Italian.
91 cyclists crossed the finish line with the same timing of Sprinter while Manuel Antonio Leal Cardoso (Team RadioShack) tried to hold his pace but failed and grabbed 92nd
place with the difference of 23 seconds ahead of Laurens De Vreese.
After seven kilometers to go, a group of three cyclists made their first breakaway including, Andy Cappelle (Quick Step), Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Jurgen Van Goolen (Verandas Willems-Accent). At the top of the Cote de Beaumont the
trio managed to gain an advantage of 5 minutes and 14 seconds.
While Greg Van Avermaet of the BMC racing team managed to hold his pace in the front of the peloton. In the last 99 kilometres, the BMC team managed to make a gap of 3 minutes and 28 seconds. With 36 kilometres to go, Jurgen Van Goolen attacked the other
two cyclists and got away.
However, Jacobs increase his pace and caught him back while Pieter Jacobs took the final sprint ahead of Van Leijen. After the sprint Drik Bellemakers launched an attack but was unable to hold his pace and failed to recapture. In the final 9 kilometres Leopard
Trek, Acquq & Sapone and Katusha tried to take a lead but Bennati cross the final ahead of the other cyclists.
Van Leijen took the overall lead with the timing of 14 hours, 8 minutes and 19 seconds and Greg Van Avermaet was runner-up one second behind Nederland.
Ben Hermans (Team RadioShack) finished third place with the difference of 12 seconds ahead of Michal Golas.
The next stage will start in Enghien and end in Mouscron. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 151.6 kilometres.
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