Rudiger Selig celebrates his first professional victory in Binche-Tournai-Binche 2011
Leopard Trek’s Rudiger Selig showed an excellent performance to take the sprinting victory in Binche-Tournai-Binche 2011 on Tuesday, October 4.
The 22-year-old German cyclist took a total of 4 hours, 21 minutes and 35 seconds to cover the distance of 202.1 kilometres. He controlled the situation of the stage in the final kilometres and powered to beat Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank Sungard) to take his
first professional victory.
Seilg was very happy and said, “As a stagiaire and a sprinter, I know I’m in a position where anything can happen. I anticipate the worst and hope for the best. My result today shows that I have continued to improve late in the season with fourth at Worlds
and third in Franco-Belge and now the win today.”
The course of the stage was quite difficult for the peloton because of strong winds and it was followed by four laps of 16.2 kilometres circuit.
A large group cyclists made their breakaway lead including, David Boucher, Julien Vermote, Dries Devenyns, Rick Flens, Maxim Belkov, Nico Sijmens, Simon Geschke, Tony Hurel (Europcar), Willem Wauters and Kevin Hulsmans. In the halfway point the course, all
of them managed to get away but the group of ten were never allowed to take a gap of over three minutes.
The two cyclists Vermote and Boucher managed to gain a lead but they were soon captured by the peloton as they were followed by Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) and Cyril Gautier (Europcar). However, Ben Hermans and Bram Tankink showed good abilities as they
tried their luck but were unable to take a lead and pulled back in the final kilometres.
Finally, Selig increased his pace and managed to cross the finish line in front of the other riders without any trouble. Jonas Vangenechten tried his best to build a gap but failed and grabbed 14th spot with a difference of three seconds ahead
of Davy Commeyne and Maarten Wynants.
Selig explained, “In the final two kilometres, there is a short cobblestone climb. I lost a few positions here.”
Kristof Goddaert (AG2R La Mondiale), Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team), Mickaël Delage (FDJ) and Florent Barle (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne) were disqualified.
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