Tyler Farrar wins second stage and Patrick Gretsch takes overall lead in 2011 Ster ZLM Tour
Garmin-Cervelo team’s Tyler Farrar won the second stage of 2011 Ster ZLM Tour on Thursday, June 16. Patrick Gretsch maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Eindhoven and ended in Sittard/Geleen. When he crossed the finish line, Tyler made ‘W’ symbol on his arms and remembered his close friend Wouter Weylandt. The 27-year-old Tyler took a total of 4 hours, 11 minutes and 52 seconds to cover
the distance of 177 kilometres.
After finishing the stage, Farrar said, "It's an important victory - the last few months have been very, very hard for me, it’s still hard to talk about."
Recently, Tyler won the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and took the Trofeo Palma de Mallorca. He also won the Trofeo Cala Millor.
Romain Feillu of the Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling team was the runner-up and Adam Blythe of the Omega Pharma-Lotto team was the third spot with the same timing of Tyler.
A group of five riders made their first breakaway, which included Debusschere (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Anthony Roux (FDJ), Baptiste Planckaert (Landbouwkrediet), Ronan van Zandbeek (Skil-Shimano) and Cornelius van Ooijen (Cycling Team Jo Piels).
All of them gained a lead of 3 minutes and 50 seconds over the peloton. Ronan Van Zandbeek won the first sprint. With 9 kilometres to go, Roux and Van Zandbeek made their speed and gained the lead.
In the final finishing circuit, Zandbeek attacked and Roux was able to follow him, but the other three riders fell behind. However, the Frenchman, Roux maintained his pace and won the second sprint.
Philippe Gilbert of the Omega Pharma-Lotto team won the first Mountain of the day, ahead of Niki Terpstra and Dennis Van Winden.
Patrick Gretsch took an overall lead with a timing of 4 hours, 20 minutes and 22 seconds. Alex Rasmussen was the runner-up with 3 seconds behind Patrick. The stage winner, Tyler was in third spot with 4 seconds adrift, while Alex was in the fourth spot.
The next stage will start in Nuth (Schimmert). All the riders will cover a distance of 202 kilometres.
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