American loses his sprinter in the lead out but takes third in opening stage
Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) continued the form that saw him take two fourth places in the Olympic Games road race and time trial last week, as he sprinted to third place in the opening stage of the Eneco Tour today. The American was meant to be leading out the BMC Racing Team’s British sprinter Adam Blythe, but the two of them became separated in the complicated run in to the finish, and so he ended up contesting the sprint himself.
“Other than that, it would have been perfect,” said the 22-year-old American. “When I didn’t see Adam behind me, I waited for him to come up. Once I tried to launch my leadout, it was already 300 meters to go so that’s why you see me third and him in fifth. He was coming from a little bit too far back.”
A crash in the final two kilometres of the flat 203.9km stage, between the Netherlands towns of Waalwijk and Middelburg, saw a number of sprint trains disrupted. Although there were relatively few actual fallers, the incident saw a very small peloton approach the finish, with 24-year-old German prodigy the fastest of those remaining.
While a number of its riders were caught behind the crash, no members of the BMC Racing Team was actually brought down. The following day’s stage will consist of an 18.9km team time trial, whose almost as flat parcours features just on small climb after 11km.
Assistant team director Max Sciandri feels that the team should do well in the stage, which could put Phinney – who currently sits in third place, six seconds behind Kittel after the finish line time bonuses – into the leaders jersey that he wore for three days last year.
“With the team we have here, we want to be in the top three,” Sciandri said.