The Gorilla is unbeatable as Lotto-Belisol dominates its home race
André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) proved unbeatable once again, as he took his third straight Tour of Belgium stage, between Knokke-Heist and Beveren. The Gorilla was fastest once again as the 163km third stage came down to a bunch sprint once again, with Danilo Napolitano (Acqua & Sapone) forced to settle for his third straight second place. In third place this time was Adam Blythe (BMC Racing).
“The team made it easy for me, I just had to make sure I was sat in the wheels,” said Greipel afterwards. “Two kilometres from the test we took hold of the reins and put in a textbook team sprint preparation.
“The last kilometres were quite dangerous, but everyone got through safely,” he added. “I can only be proud of the boys.
“We are here to refine our sprint preparation,” the German explained. “On day one it was really good; yesterday we lost each other a little bit, but today we still had all the boys together a kilometre from the finish.”
The break of the day went clear after 30km, as Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator), Coen Vermeltfoort (Rabobank), Tijmen Eising (Sunweb-Revor) and Alessandro Donati (Acqua&Sapone) escaped. They managed to open up a lead of four minutes but were always kept under control by the peloton and were steadily reeled in towards the end.
With 25km to go, and with the peloton gaining, Belkov jumped away alone but, with the pace set by Omega Pharma-Quick Step and BMC Racing, he was recaptured inside the final ten kilometres.
Lotto-Belisol took over as the finish approached, Greipel hit the front early, and was able to maintain his sprint to the line. More bonus seconds saw the German increase his lead over Napolitano to 12 seconds as he headed into the following day’s time trial.