Kai Reus begins perfect day for De Rijke by taking La Mi-Aout en Bretagne 2011 – Cycling Update
Cyclingteam De Rijke team’s Kai Reus showed a brilliant effort in the first stage of La Mi-Aout en Bretagne 2011 and also took overall leader’s yellow jersey on Thursday, August 11.
The race started in Plouec du Trieux and ended in Pontrieux. The 26-year-old Dutch professional cyclists took a lead in eight breakaway riders and the total of 4 hours, 10 minutes and 24 seconds to cover the distance of 171 kilometres.
Florian Vachon of Bretagne – Schuller was runner-up and David Chopin of Bretagne finished third with the same timing of Nederland U19 time trial champion Reus.
The stage is difficult for the cyclists because it contain six sprints and six mountains. The three cyclists made their first breakaway including, Julien Duval (US Ste Austreberthe Pavilly), Christer Jensen (Joker Merida) and Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post -
Sean Kelly).
All of them managed to gain a lead of a few seconds while Christer Jensen launched an attack to take a lead but Julien Duval showed an amazing effort and took the first four sprints of the stage. Luis Mas Bonet took the fifth sprint and David Chopin took
the final sprint ahead of Christer Rake.
The cyclists continued the race and three cyclists including Christer Jensen, Julien Duval and Armindo Fonseca (Bretagne – Schuller) got away in first climb while Jensen took maximum points and secured the first three climbs.
Julien Duval took the fourth and Luis Mas Bonet took fifth climb. However, in the final kilometres, Kai Reus launched an attack to take a lead and cross the finish line ahead of the other cyclists.
Jonas Vangenechten (Wallonie Bruxelles - Credit Agricole) was in good form and tried his best to take part in nine leading riders but failed to hold the pace and took tenth place with the difference of 23 seconds ahead of Luke Rowe and Jetse Bol (Rabobank
Continental Team).
Jean Philippe Maheau (Team U. Nantes Atlantique) and Ricky Eno Jorgensen (Team Concordia Forsikring – Himmerland) were disqualified from the stage.
Previously, Reus took the second stage of Tour of Britain in 2009 and also secured title of Netherlands U23 road race champion and time trial. He also grabbed overall Tour of Normandie in 2006.
The second stage will start in Pont Scor and end in Cleguer as all the cyclists will cover the distance of 165.6 kilometres.
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