Prologue winner Westra drops out of contention

Andre GreipelHaving shown signs his form was good with a solid ninth place in Wednesday’s prologue, Andre Greipel took over the race lead in the Tour of Belgium today with a strong sprint victory into Knokke Heist.

The German Omega Pharma-Lotto rider beat Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano), Maxime Vantomme (Katusha Team) and the rest of the bunch to the line and, when the bonuses were calculated, moved

Prologue winner Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) had a tough day and finished over 15 minutes back. He was caught out when the bunch split in strong winds, and has lost the chance of winning the race.

“It was a nervous affair in the final, but the team has been working great again,” he told Sporza.be. “With 50 kilometres to go to the finish, I was in the second group. I was glad we finally got back to the leaders, so I could sprint for victory.

“The wind came from all sides in the last kilometre beside the sea – you couldn’t get any shelter at all. With 600 metres to go everyone was going flat out; I was lucky in that I had some power left. I’m glad I built on the work of the team. My goal was a stage victory in this race and it worked. Taking the jersey is the icing on the cake; that’s also thanks to my good prologue yesterday.”

Following a short-lived attack early on by Niko Eeckhout (An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly), his team-mate Kenny Terweduwe was one of five who clipped away after his recapture. Tom Meeusen (Telenet-Fidea), Frederic Amorison (Landbouwkrediet), Kurt Hovelynck (Donckers Koffie – Jelly Belly) and Steven Van Vooren (Topsport Vlaannderen-Mercator) were also there and together they built a gap of six minutes. That looked promising, but the strong winds shredded their chances and led to their recapture.

Greipel was left stranded when the peloton split with 50 kilometres to go; frantic chasing on their part brought him back into play. Tom Boonen was also able to recover after he had a puncture, and tried to take the stage win. Greipel was too strong, though, and so the Belgian had to settle for fourth.

The 2.HC race continues with a 187.8 kilometre race around Knokke-Heist. Greipel holds a slender two second lead over Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), with Dominique Cornu (Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator) a further second behind.