Marcel Kittel wins final stage of Tour du Nord-pas-de-Calais 2011 – Cycling news
Marcel Kittel of Skil-Shimano team has won the fifth and final stage of the Tour du Nord-pas-de-Calais 2011. The race started in Grande and ended at Dunkerque.
The German cyclist took a total of 3 hours, 53 minutes and 19 seconds to cover the distance of 175 kilometres.
Kittel easily defeated Yauheni Hutarovich of the FDJ Team in the final sprint, which put the Belarusian into second spot. Michael Van Staeyen of the Topsport Vlaanderen team managed a good performance in the stage, to claim third place.
After winning the stage, Kittel, said, "This is unbelievable. I am really happy and proud of the whole team.”
There were three sprints and one mountain in the stage. After 10 kilometres of the race, a group of four riders including Jaroslaw Marycz, Dominique Rollin, Jimmy Engoulvent and Nicolas Bazin managed to slip away. After 17 kilometres, Julien Fouchard and
Julien Vermote made the first move and were joined by the group of four riders.
All of them never gained an advantage of more than 1 minute and 50 seconds over the peloton. When the race entered in Monts des Cats, Nicolas Bazin grabbed the ‘King of Mountain’ of the day, ahead of Jimmy Engoulvent and Julien Fouchard.
At the first 133 kilometres sprint, Dominique Rollin was first to finish the round ahead of Fouchard and Bazin. With 42 kilometres remaining, the first cyclists two suffered from a crash, leaving four men in front.
After 147.5 kilometres, Julien Vermote took a second sprint ahead of Nicolas Bazlin and Jimmy Engoulvent. In the final phase of the race, Jaroslaw Marycz tried to take a lead but Nicolas Bazin jumped over him and took a final stride.
In the last kilometres, Yauheni and Michael Van Staeyen took the lead over Marcel Kittel, but with the help of his Dutch team, Kittel crossed the finish line without any difficulty.
Recently, Kittel won the first four stages of Tour du Nord-pas-de-Calais and also won the Tour de Langkawi.
Thomas Voeckler took a lead in the overall standing with a timing of 20 hours, 36 minutes and 01 seconds. Laurent Pichon was the runner-up, as he was 1 minute and 50 seconds behind Voeckler. Zdenek Stybar finished third, with the difference of 1 minute and
52 seconds.
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