Belgian sprinter back to form with Quick Step team
Rebounding from the illness that caused him to withdraw halfway through Paris-Nice, Quick Step’s Gert Steegmans blasted to victory in the Nokere-Koerse race in Belgium today. He showed good form to net his first race win in two years, beating Stefan Van Dijk (Veranda Willems Accent) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank) to the line.
Steegmans last topped the podium on stage two of the Vuelta a Andalucia on February 17th 2009; since then, he’s had a frustrating time due to a spat with the Katusha team over its controversial anti-doping charter, as well as injury and poor form with the RadioShack team last year.
Now competing again with the Quick Step team, he appears to be back on track. Although he hasn’t been listed as part of the squad for Milan-Sanremo, he’s happy with how things are going with the squad.
“I’m thrilled…the team worked really well,” he stated. “In the last 400 metres everything just clicked; it wasn’t a chaotic sprint, but quite orderly, just like I like it, with ideal conditions for me to progressively unload my power on the pedals.
“I feel in great shape and I hope to continue like this for the next steps of the season. I hope this victory can bring good luck to me in the next races and to my team mates who’ll be busy on Saturday in Milan-Sanremo.”
A break of four riders went clear early on, with Michael Van Stayen (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Quick Step), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ) and Kenny De Haes (Omega Pharma Lotto) building a maximum of two minutes 15 seconds over the peloton.
The quartet was reeled in 20 kilometres from the finish, after which De Haes, Rob Goris (Veranda Willems), Gaëtan Bille (Wallonie Bruxelles-Credit) and Rony Martias (Saur Sojasun) pushed ahead. They got much less freedom, establishing a lead of slightly over five minutes before the bunch bore down on them.
A stubborn De Haes was last to be caught, clipping away from his group seven kilometres from the line and then been reeled in by the Katusha-led peloton one kilometres later.
Steegmans was quickest in the ensuing bunch gallop, going early and holding off Van Dijk, Brown and the rest, and finally returning to the top step of the podium. He’ll next be in action on Friday in the Handzame Classic.
Directeur sportif Tom Steels said that he was very happy with how things worked out. “The entire team raced in an exceptional manner, hungry for victory. In the final, even though Robert got a flat and Stauff had some mechanical problems, all the guys tried to work and stay together to set Steegmans up in the best conditions to battle it out in a great final sprint.
“To complete today’s success, in addition to Gert’s victory we also got the jersey for the mountain classification with Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, who starred in a long breakaway with other riders.”