Tour of the Mediterranean success prompts confidence prior to spring Classics
Jürgen Roelandts followed up on his overall win in last September’s Eurométropole Tour/Circuit Franco-Belge with another victory for Lotto Belisol, notching up the team’s eleventh victory thus far this season on the final stage of the Tour of the Mediterranean.
After an earlier move was hauled back inside the final ten kilometres, the Belgian rider clipped away and hit the line four seconds ahead of Androni Giocattoli’s Francesco Reda and Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Euskaltel-Euskadi). The effort moved him up to seventh overall in the final standings, but it was the victory which mattered most.
“It was a tough stage today. In the end there was a group of about thirty riders left,” he said of the win. “Seven of us could take off after a climb in the final. The final kilometre went uphill and then the strongest man won.”
The Lotto Belisol team has had a fine start to the year, with Andre Greipel clocking up four UCI wins plus the People’s Choice Classic, Gert Dockx and Fréderique Robert taking two stage wins apiece in the Tropicale Amissa Bongo and Kenny Dehaes winning the Trofeo Palma de Mallorca.
Today’s success adds to that, and 27 year old Roelandts believes that more lies ahead. “We won two out of four stages in this Tour Méditerranéen and it is the eleventh victory of the season, so we couldn’t have a better start,” he said.
“I still have a sore finger [from his crash in the Santos Tour Down Under – ed.] but it is less painful when I’m on the bike. Now I will be training for the Belgian opening races. It is clear I am on schedule.”