The Gorilla outpaces the other sprinters as only twenty survive to contest the finish
André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) won a closely contested sprint to take the first stage of the Eneco Tour between Oosterhout and Sint-Willebrord, in the Netherlands. The German was the fastest of what became a twenty-strong peloton, after a final kilometre crash took out most of the peloton.
Most of the top sprinters made it in the front group, with Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) taking second behind Greipel, and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo) in third.
“It was pretty narrow,” said Greipel to the TV cameras after the stage. “So the team did a really good job to keep me up at the front; but I couldn’t get a gap at first. With a hundred metres to go I think I was twelfth, thirteenth, maybe, but finally I could find a bit of space, and I could do my sprint.
“The team did a great job,” he explained. “We were a bit surprised by Rabobank, so we were pretty far back, but [Philippe] Gilbert and all the other guys did a really good job to bring me to the front and the luck was on our side.”
Just a few kilometres into the 192km stage, a group of six riders escaped and formed the break of the day. The riders were: Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis), Matteo Trentin (Quick Step), Jens Debusschere (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator) and Han Feng (Skil-Shimano).
Having recently 22 years old, Trentin was riding his first race at this level, having signed on with Quick Step as a stagiere at the beginning of the month.
De Gendt was the best placed of the six riders in the overall classification, just 28 seconds behind race leader Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing). This deficit was quickly reduced to 25 seconds as the Belgian led the sextet over the line at the first intermediate sprint after 49.4km, ahead of Debusschere and Han.
After 70km Phinney’s BMC Racing team had allowed the break to get ten minutes ahead before deciding to bring it down. With 87km to go, as the leader’s crossed the finish line to start the larger of the two finishing loops, the peloton was being led by a combination of Team Sky, Garmin-Cervélo and BMC Racing. At the 80km to go point the gap had slipped down to five minutes, where it was to hover for the next 25km.
With 61km to go Neirynck and Han found the pace of the front group too strong, and were dropped, leaving just four riders in the lead.
As the peloton began to accelerate, as it approached the last 50km, there was a crash towards the rear of the peloton. Among those to come down were Johann Tschopp (BMC Racing), Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) and a number of his teammates. Worst off though, was Francisco Perez (Movistar), who stayed down for some time; the race doctor applied a bandage to the Spanish rider’s head before he was taken away by ambulance.
With 50.1km to go, De Gendt reduced his deficit to Phinney to 22 seconds by taking first place in the second intermediate sprint, ahead of Trentin and Fouchard. The peloton was now just 4’45” behind as a large group, who’d been caught behind the last crash, fought hard to rejoin the back.
Greipel one of those to be caught behind he crash and the high pace saw the gap to the leaders start to tumble; shortly after the 50km to go point Neirynck was caught.
At 45km to go the four leaders’ advantage was down to 4’15”, as Han was pulled in by the peloton, led by Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Vansummeren (Garmin-Cervélo). The chase was once again disrupted though as a crash with 40km to go took down Daniel Sesma (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Sébastien Minard (AG2R La Mondiale).
Sesma was able to continue, but Minard was forced to abandon.
With 30km to go the gap to the leaders was down to 2’40”, with the four of them still standing a chance – however slim – of making it to the finish. A few kilometres later though, Allan Davies (Astana) crashed at the back of the peloton; although the Australian sprinter was surrounded by other riders, they all managed to get around him, and he managed to chase back on in the course of the next few kilometres.
The peloton now had the bit between its teeth, and with 25km to go the leaders had just 1’42”, which had been slashed to almost exactly a minute by the 20km to go point.
With 19km to go though, disaster almost struck for Phinney as he punctured. The race leader was paced back up by his BMC Racing Team though, with Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) appearing to lend a hand.
With the peloton apparently gaining with 18km to go, Fouchard attacked the rest of the break and there was no response. As he crossed the finish line with just the small 14.9km lap to go, he led by nine seconds over the other three, with De Gendt taking second ahead of Debusschere.
The peloton crossed the line just 34 seconds behind Fouchard and, with 13km to go, the three chasers sat up and were pulled back. Fouchard was now 31 seconds clear and fighting hard.
Katusha and Rabobank began moving their domestiques forward at this point, but nobody seemed to be in a hurry to catch the lone Frenchman. With 10km to go though, Rabobank accelerated and his 17-second advantage disappeared in the matter of a few hundred metres.
The Dutch team kept the pace high and, with 6km to go, splits began to appear in the peloton on the exposed roads. Phinney was now keeping very close to the front; his white jersey with its red bubbles clearly visible behind the orange and blue Rabobank jerseys.
With 4km to go there were still four Rabobank riders on the front of the peloton, with sprinter Theo Bos in their wake, and the team looked to have the stage finish under control. An acceleration from Lars Bak, with what looked like an attack, with saw the orange and blue jerseys disappear from the front though; the peloton was on him straight away and he drifted back, but the speed dropped as no team seemed willing to pick the pace up once more.
With 2km to go though, Team Sky and Leopard Trek took over, but were both outpaced by Quick Step, trying to get the stage through German sprinter Gerald Ciolek.
Shortly after passing under the final kilometre banner there was a crash very close to the already shrunken peloton as riders touched wheels with each other. There were now just twenty riders in the front of the race, but most of the big-name sprinters were in there.
As the small peloton rounded the final corner, Phinney was the first to open up his sprint. The young American had gone far too early though and found himself swamped by the others as they came by; Farrar accelerated down the middle of the road, but Galimzyanov pulled around him as the line approached. The Russian sprinter found himself overtaken too though, as Greipel came around his right hand side, to take the victory by the diameter of his front wheel.
Despite De Gendt’s best efforts to close the gap to Phinney with sprint time bonuses, the Belgian was caught behind one of the splits in the peloton and lost 3’09” at the finish. The BMC Racing rider holds on to the white jersey ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) and David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo). Both were caught behind the final split but, because it happened inside the final three kilometres, they were given the same time as the winner.
Thanks to bonuses on the line, Greipel and Farrar move up to fourth and fifth places overall respectively.
"I was feeling good at the end," said Phinney. "Rabobank made a big push to try and split the field and I was right up there with great help from Greg Van Avermaet and Karsten Kroon in the final.
“I was fighting for Boasson Hagen’s wheel,” he explained, “because I knew that if he won the stage he’d take the jersey.”
“Happy to be up there,” he added, “but also happy to miss the crashes and I’m really thankful to the guys for all the work they did today.”