Belgian gets help from Devolder to beat Van Avermaet

Quick Step’s Jurgen Van de Walle repeated his 2009 victory in the Belgian Halle-Ingooiem race. Van de Walle escaped in the final kilometers from a larger break and held off the chasers, led home 20 seconds later by Arnoud Van Groen (Vacansoleil). Greg van Avermaet continued to show his improvement ahead of the Tour de France and beat out Stijn Devolder for the remaining podium spot.

Van de Walle made his move with four kilometers to go. He was the first rider ever to repeat his victory the next year. “I didn’t know that,” Van de Walle said to hln.be after the race. “With Stijn Devolder I had the perfect teammate in our eight-man leading group.” Van de Walle referred to the latter part of the race, when only a third of the initial 24-man move remained within chance of victory.

“When I made my move, Devolder yelled to me that I had to go all out,” Van de Walle added. “I really had to give it all to stay in front. Now we look forward to the Nationals.” The Belgian was quite happy to have made the Tour team, too. “Fantastic, eh! The reward for all the work I have been putting in for the team.”

Van Avermaet was the fastest sprinter in the group on paper, but breaks have their own ways of developing. “I was certainly in a pinch, with the riders from Quick Step and Vacansoleil there,” he said. “They both had two guys in the group and I was alone. When Van de Walle went, everybody slowed down and it was all over. My hunger is huge and I want to recuperate well for Sunday in Leuven [Nationals].”

The first move came on the second climb of the day, the Kanarieberg, according to hln.be. A group of 24 riders used the climb at kilometer 53 to take off. Besides the above mentioned racers the group also contained Philippe Gilbert. When they hit the first of six local laps at km 97, the gap to the peloton was two minutes.

The break was strong enough to stay away from the field, but was unable to prevent various attacks to disintegrate the group. The first big mover was Van Avermaet, who used the final climb of the day, the Tiegemberg with 12km remaining, to storm away. His capture was immediately followed by a Devolder jump. Joined by Huub Duyn, Johnny Hoogerland and – a little later – Andy Capelle, this looked like it was the move that would stick.

But there was still cohesion in the chase group and when everything came back together, it didn’t take long until the next move. With four kilometers to go, Van de Walle attacked, never to be seen again by the rest.
 

Results

1. Jurgen Van De Walle (QST)
2. Arnoud Van Groen (VAC)
3. Greg Van Avermaet (OLO)
4. Stijn Devolder (QST)
5. Huub Duyn (APP)
6. Johnny Hoogerland (VAC)
7. Bert Scheirlinckx (LAN)
8. Andy Cappelle (WIL)