Jurgen Roelandts wins the opening stage of the Tour de Wallonie-Picarde 2012
Jurgen Roelandts of Team Lotto Belisol wins the opening stage of the Tour De Wallonie Picardie after his spectacular performance during the 165.8 kilometre event.
He took a total time of 3 hours, 44 minutes and 22 seconds to complete the race and restricted his major rivals.
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck of Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep finished second with Maarten Wynants of Team Rabobank, Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni of Team Sky Procycling and Karsten Kroon of Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank securing the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
The 27-year-old opened his 2012 winning account with a stage 4 victory at the Tour de Luxembourg and also succeeded during the first stage of the Eurometropole Tour 2012.
He rode exceptionally well to grab a third overall position at the Ster ZLM Toer and is looking in great shape for the coming stages of the Tour De Wallonie Picarde 2012.
Vladimir Isaichev of Team Katusha wins the opening sprint of the race while Aidis Kruopis of Team Orica-GreenEdge and Jurgen Roelandts of Team Lotto Belisol succeeded at the second and the third sprints.
Stijn Neirynck of Team Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator claimed the first and the third mountain of the race whereas; David Boucher of Team FDJ-Big Mat dominated the second climb.
The Belgian is currently leading the points table with as many as 25 points to his credit after the first stage.
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck is five points behind at the second position with Maarten Wynants (16 points), Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (14 points) and Karsten Kroon (12 points) securing the next three positions.
Top fifteen cyclists after the Tour de Wallonie-Picarde are as below,
1
Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
3:44:07
2
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Bel) Omega Pharma - QuickStep
0:00:09
3
Maarten Wynants (Bel) Rabobank Cycling Team
0:00:10
4
Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Sky Procycling
0:00:13
5
Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
0:00:15
6
Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat
7
Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team
8
Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) Garmin-Sharp
9
Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) Orica-GreenEdge Cycling Team
0:00:51
10
David Boucher (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat
0:00:52
11
Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan
0:00:53
12
Stijn Neirynck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
13
Robert Wagner (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan
0:00:54
14
André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol Team
15
Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat
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