Greipel seals triumph for Pharma-Lotto while Taylor Phinney retains overall lead - Cycling News
Omega Pharma-Lotto team’s Andre Greipel took his second stage victory in Eneco Tour 2011 on Tuesday, August 10. The race started in Aalter and ended in Ardooie.
The 29-year-old German professional cyclists lead out the sprint and made the left curve to easily beat the Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo.
Edvald Boasson Hagen of Sky Procycling finished third with the same timing of Andre ahead of Jean-Pierre Druker and Baden Cooke. Taylor Phinney (BMC) crossed the finish line in sixth to keep his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
After finishing the stage, Phinney said, "It was a very nervous final two hours but I wanted to try and win today, I felt good and this time didn't make the mistake of starting my sprint too early. Unfortunately I was only sixth.”
The traffic furniture again creates a problem for the cyclists during the race. After half an hour of racing the four riders group made a breakaway which included Han Feng (Skil-Shimano), Sam Bewley (RadioShack), Jelle Wallays (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Rob
Goris (Willems Veranda's-Accent) and managed to open up a five minute gap.
Sky team also worked hard, knowing that Boasson Hagen was in good form and managed to take a lead overall. With 50 kilometres to go, the two cyclists Han Feng and Sam Bewley were caught by the peloton and further three cyclists Mitchell Docker, Lars Bak
and Aleksejs Saramotins jumped across the gap.
Initially, they were allowed to open a gap but the peloton again brought them back. After 23 kilometres, the peloton again worked well together while the several left turns allowed the sprinter to lead out. In the final five kilometres to go, Greipel was
seen near the back of the peloton. Tyler Farrar tried his best to take a lead but failed and Andre crossed the finish line ahead of the other cyclists.
Phinney maintained an overall lead with the timing of 8 hours, 35 minutes and 38 seconds and Boasson Hagen was runner-up with 3 seconds behind Taylor. David Millar was in third place with the difference of 8 seconds. Both Hagen and Millar put in tremendous
efforts and fought their way through the pack to take second and third respectively.
He further added, "Edvald took some time and he's a threat because he's a good climber. Gilbert is the king of these kind of climbs and there are a lot of strong teams who want to try and take the jersey from us. But we'll take it as it comes and see what
happens."
The next stage will start in Heers and end in Andenne. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 191.2 kilometres.
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