Belgian hopes to avoid bad day in final mountain stage
Jurgen van den Broeck is now openly stating his goal of a top five finish in this year’s Tour de France. With one tough mountain stage and a 50-kilometer time trial to go, the Belgian sits currently in fifth, 1’26 behind Denis Menchov and 1’22 ahead of Robert Gesink. Levi Leipheimer is a further 24 seconds adrift.
When Van den Broeck hears that he has ridden a good Tour, he is quick to praise others. “And so did the whole team,” he said to hln.be. “Now it is up to me to finish the work. I hope that after the rest day I don’t have a bad day.” He certainly tried to keep in the rhythm and, like Andy Schleck, rode the Col de Marie Blanque to prepare for the next stage. Van den Broeck was glad that the team car followed with lights in the foggy and wet conditions.
While afraid of a “jour sans” in the mountains, he has no nightmares about the race against the clock on Saturday. “I don’t fear the time trial. I am still fresh and I can hold my own.”
For the Omega Pharma-Lotto the success of Van den Broeck is a welcome change of affairs, after another season where things have gone wrong in many winless races. “A top ten was our goal, now we need to adjust our ambitions” said team manager Marc Sergeant. The aim is now a top five for Van den Broeck.
“Everybody saw in the last few stages that the top five of the overall distinguished themselves from the others. It is easier to say now that we are going for a top five,” Sergeant added. “Especially because in the last few days we saw weak points in some of the direct challengers of Jurgen, and those are Robert Gesink and Levi Leipheimer.”
Sergeant is quite excited about the possible outcome on Sunday. “Finishing among the top five in Paris would be awesome. But if he still does loses a few places we still will be happy. Jurgen rode a brilliant Tour.”