Garmin-Cervélo’s Michael Kreder boosted team morale after a frustrating Tour of Flanders campaign when he grabbed a stage win on today’s second leg of the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe in France.
The 23 year old Dutchman zipped past yesterday’s stage victor and overall leader Daniele Bennati just metres before the line, timing his move perfectly to pip the Leopard Trek rider. The Italian remains at the head of the general classification, holding a four second lead over Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis) and Thierry Hupond (Skil-Shimano).
The stage was a short one as the riders will also face an afternoon time trial. Four riders went clear after just three kilometres, and together Kevin Reza (Europcar), Arnaud Gérard (FDJ), Cyril Bessy (Saur-Sojasun) and Matthieu Sprick (Skil-Shimano) built a decent lead. Sprick won the KOM prime at St-Sigismond, 39 kilometres after the start, and then 17 kilometres later the quartet reached their maximum advantage of two and a half minutes.
The peloton ramped up the speed after that point and finally reeled in the move five kilometres from the end. Bennati jumped hard and looked set to win in the leader’s jersey, but Kreder slipped by and nabbed his first pro win.
“The team chased the entire day,” said Leopard Trek directeur sportif Luca Guercilena afterwards. “We did most of the work with Garmin helping also at the end. We got them back at five kilometers from the finish, and we prepared ourselves for the sprint.”
He said that they had hoped Bennati could grab his second win of the season, but it was not to be. “The stage finished on a descent that ended about 150 meters from the finish,” he said. “At the end of the descent, Bennati started his sprint. All looked good, but Kreder from Garmin passed him in the last 10 meters. It’s a pity because we worked so hard all race. Still, we kept the yellow jersey, so we’re happy for that.”
Because there were no time bonuses in the morning stage, Bennati holds a four second lead going into the 6.8 kilometre time trial this afternoon. Guercilena conceded that this advantage might not be enough.
“There were no time bonuses this morning, so Daniele enters the time trial with only a four second lead,” he said. “There are enough riders here that are strong in this kind of time trial that his lead is not certain. We’ll know more this afternoon if we can still go for the overall or if we’ll need to focus on winning stages.”
Kreder begins the time trial ten seconds behind Bennati in the overall classification.