Final stage ends in sprint

Kris Boeckmans sprinted to victory in the final stage of the 24th Ster Elektrotoer race in the Netherlands, beating Artem Ovechkin and André Greipel. Adam Hansen finished with the main pack and held on to his overall lead. Greipel took home the green sprinters’ jersey, Jens Mouris the white jersey for the intermediate sprints and Andrea Tonti won the mountains classification. Peter Schulting was the best young rider and won the Wim Jeremiasse prize.

HTC Columbia and Hansen made the right choice by putting the Australian in the lesser known race. “Adam said he specifically wanted to ride this race rather than doing the Tour de Suisse, and he certainly made a good choice,” said HTC-Columbia’s sports director Tristan Hoffman. “After doing so well on Saturday’s stage, he became the team leader for the race, and he gave it everything he could to make sure he could win. The final stage was totally flat, and we managed to control the early breaks with help from the other sprinters’ teams and keep things together.”

Still, a bike race is not over until it is over. “But then Adam had a mechanical problem and the whole team waited for him and made sure he got back to the bunch. It was important to work for a bunch sprint for André [Greipel] , but we wanted to be sure Adam got his first stage race win, too.” With Tony Martin taking care of the Tour de Suisse, HTC Columbia had a brilliant Sunday.

A trio goes it alone

Niki Terpstra (Milram), Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil) and Bart van Haaren (VVE) quickly took after less than five kilometers covered in the race to form the break of the day on a rainy day in the Netherlands. Van Haaren sat constantly on the back, in an apparent effort to save his energy for the firts intermediate sprint after more than 40km. But it was Mouris who crossed the line in first, ahead of Van Haaren and Terpstra.

The gap was still only half a minute, with HTC Columbia doing the work in the peloton. Finally, with 100km to go, the constant work paid off and the gap extended to four mninutes. Shock for the yellow jersey Adam Hansen with 63km to go, as he was one of several crash victims. The Australian was able to continue, unlike Eric Berthou, who was brought to hospital in an ambulance.

The second sprint was located at the finish line, with two more laps of 15km to race. Mouris won the sprint again to give him the white sprints jersey. Terpstra was second, while van Haaren had dropped off the front. The gap of the leading duo was down to less than a minute with the final 15km local lap to start. Ten kilometers from the finish it was gruppo compatto, with the field sprint inevitable.

Stage 5 results

1. Kris Boeckmans (TSV)
2. Artem Ovechkin (KAT)
3. Andre Greipel (THR)
4. Kenny Dehaes (OLO)
5. Juan Jose Haedo (SAX)

Final GC

1. Adam Hansen (THR)