Big stage win for Australian, double Herald Sun Tour winner
Theo Bos (Rabobank) prevented Sacha Modolo from taking his third stage win at this year’s Tour of Denmark. The Dutchman was fastest on the final stage, beating Modolo and Manuel Belletti (both Colnago – CSF Inox). Double Herald Sun Tour winner Simon Gerrans (Sky) took the biggest stage win of his career by taking a nine-second win over Daniele Bennati (Leopard Trek).
Rabobank’s day didn’t start well when Matti Breschel, who had held the leader’s jersey after stage two for a day, decided not to participate in the final stage. Bos took over. “The most important in top sports is winning,” directeur sportif Jan Boven said on the team’s website.
Rabobank was committed to Breschel for the overall, but that plan fell to pieces when the Danish rider lost almost two minutes in the 13.2km stage-five time trial, apparently suffering from sickness. “The team worked very hard this week to get Matti in a good position for the time trial and then it can be all over after such a disappointment,” Boven said. He added that the win by Bos rewarded the hard work they had put in.
Breschel did stay out of the saddle on Sunday. “It wasn’t good Saturday night and it looked like he was developing a fever,” Boven said. “It doesn’t clear everything up, as for that his time trial was really too bad. But it explains it a bit so that I can better understand his declarations made yesterday.”
Boven was satisfied with his team in the Danish Tour.”We came here with two ambitions. We wanted to win a stage and we wanted to get a good overall result. We got 50 percent of that,” Boven said.
The Sky team was even happier with the overall win by Gerrans. “It’s a really good result,” Sports Director Marcus Ljungqvist said. “A very nice win for Simon and for the team. Like always without the help of the team it is difficult to pull something off, so it was great to see.”
With only an eight-second lead, the overall was not decided on the final day, thanks to the time bonuses. “It was full-on bike racing from the start today. They had to fight for it and work hard to get the intermediate sprint. It was a perfect one for us. Simon nipped in front of Bennati and took a bit of his morale I think.”
Still, the virtual lead on the road was just that – virtual. “Bennati could have still won the race with the 10-second bonus on the line so it wasn’t over until the finish. The rest of the team they did a great job, supporting and taking care of Simon, making sure he was in position at all times,” Ljungqvist said.
The situation was a bit complicated for Gerrans. “There was a lot of talk before about who would do what,” Ljungqvist said. “We would have done the same and try to control it until the first sprint and try and get the seconds which is exactly what Leopard Trek wanted to do.” It came down to the wire and Bennati is a man who can win bunch sprints. But his 11th place was far enough away from the victory and the ten bonus seconds that Gerrans could ride in relaxed in 24th spot.