Belkin team played important role in animating WorldTour race
He started the race as defending champion and while he was able to take over the leader’s jersey in his hometown of Vlijmen on day four, Lars Boom ultimately had to be satisfied with eleventh overall. The Dutch Belkin rider lost chances on the penultimate stage in the Ardennes hills, dropping out of contention.
A fight back yesterday saw him finish third on the last stage. Importantly, he was able to beat Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol), who had started the day level on points with him, and who had been clear for much of the stage in a break.
Greipel picked up bonus points while away in his move, but Boom’s final third place on the stage put him a slender point ahead in the final standings.
It was a nice way to finish up, but he’s clear that it isn’t the same as winning the race outright.
“This feels like a consolation prize,” he stated. “All week, I’ve been riding for the overall victory but unfortunately I couldn’t follow yesterday. I wanted to defend my jersey and think I did quite well, but you could say that a bad day cost me the overall.”
Wilco Kelderman ended up as the best rider from the team in the overall standings. He took seventh place, one minute and 32 seconds behind the race winner Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma Quick Step), who grabbed the final victory when he won the last stage.
Kelderman said he was content with the outcome. “This is a nice top ten place. My legs felt good all week, but only yesterday and today it paid off,” he said.
“In the first few days, I lost some time needlessly. That’s a pity, although it’s a good lesson. In the future, I hope to come back here. If I improve myself a bit, I could fight for the win, but that also depends on what races I’ll be riding in years to come.”
At one point he looked set for a better overall result, slipping clear in a dangerous move towards the end with Daniel Oss (BMC Racing Team) and Sylvan Chavanel (Omega Pharma Quick Step). However they were reeled in with six kilometres to go, after which Stybar made his surge and set about taking the final overall win.
“It’s too bad that when Wilco attacked only Chavanel and Oss bridged,” said directeur spotif Nico Verhoeven, recognising that with more reinforcements, things might have worked out better.