Tom Boonen successful at the opening stage of the World Ports Classics 2012
Tom Boonen wins the opening stage of the World Ports Classic 2012 after his outrageous victory at the 201 kilometre chase to Antwerpen.
He took a total time of 3 hours, 56 minutes and 57 seconds and restricted Andre Greipel for the second spot after an exhausting battle.
It was the Belgian’s first win since the Belgian National Championships after having a quite successful run in the first half of the season.
He secured victories at the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, Gent-Wevelgem, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders all coming in a short span of two-weeks.
The cyclist was delighted to get back on his winning ways and briefed that the victory can help his confidence for the next big goal of the season, the 2012 UCI Road World Championships.
“It’s really a collective victory because my teammate did a great job to set up a great lead-out train,” Boonen said afterwards.
“When the day is difficult, I know that I have a good chance in the sprint against the specialists and that was the case again today”.
“The weather was ideal for making the race hard,” he said.
“Our strategy was effectively to make the race hard from the start, create echelons and that worked perfectly”.
Alexander Kristoff of Team Katusha finished third with Blaz Jarc of Team NetApp and Mark Renshaw of Team Rabobank securing the third, fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
Tom claimed the maximum number of 25 points with Andre Greipel of Team Lotto Belisol 3 points behind at the second position.
Alexander Kristoff of Team Katusha, Blaz Jarc of Team NetApp and Mark Renshaw of Team Rabobank claimed the next three spots respectively.
Tom Veelers and Michael Morkov succeeded at the 73.5 kilometre and the 172.5 kilometres, first and the second sprints of the contest.
Alexander Kristoff of Teak Katusha, Blaz Jarc of Team NetApp, Steele Von Hoff of Team Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator and Guillaume Boivin of Team Spidertech Powered By C10 were the top five young riders on the day.
Tom leads the World Ports Classics 2012 stage 1 classification with a margin of 4 seconds over Andre Greipel while Alexander Kristoff of Team Katusha is further 2 seconds behind at the third spot.
With one more stage to go, Boonen is well placed to grab an overall victory at the race. However, his abilities will be tested by the in-form German sprinter, Andre Greipel who is at the second position.
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