After Nico Mattan briefly tested his legs a break of 5 got away, with Matteo Tosatto being the most well-known rider.
At one point it looked like making it but inevitably the chase came, led by Landbouwkredit. Former Belgian Champion Geert Omloop attacked from the pack and caught the break with 19km to go. The rest of the break was caught but he still held a very slight gap with 3km to go.
Vanderaerden was following the 3-man Rabobank Continental train.
Omloop was soon passed though and in a tight sprint, the winner was:
I might get to do Paris-Roubaix later too, with my 3 cobbled riders in the form of their lives, but first up is a report on an enjoyable dutch race, Profronde van Drenthe
5 laps of a fairly tough circuit, lets see what Pliuschin can do!
7 men went away including the German national champ Dirk Muller.
After letting the gap grow, Wiesenhof and Barloworld closed down the gap, splitting the peleton in doing so. Eventually when the gap was close, the favourites attacked. Pliuchkin countered and stayed with them - apart from Wesemann who had got away and caught the ast survivor of the break.
Pliuchin, Cardenas, Boom and Solari worked well together in pursuit of Wesemann. The remnants of the break had now well and truly gone.
But inevitably it would not be enough and Wesemann won to become the Continental leader.
A badly timed drink from Pliuchin disrupted his sprint, which is a shame as he had the best sprint stat of the group of 4. Cardenas just edged 2nd, ahead of Pliuchin.
An attacker from Kio-Ene took 6th while Rabobank Continental and DFL dominated the peleton's sprint. With Nolf getting his best finish of the season.
11 Alexander Efimkin BARLOWORLD s.t.
12 Tom Veelers RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
13 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
14 Hugo Sabido BARLOWORLD s.t.
15 John-Lee Augustyn BARLOWORLD s.t.
16 Marc Lotz TEAM LÖWIK MEUBELEN s.t.
17 Wouter Van Mechelen LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
18 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
19 Thomas Rabou RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
20 Sergei Lagutin NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
21 René Weissinger TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
22 Gerrit Glomser TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
23 Michael Reihs TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
24 Erik Hoffmann TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
25 Bram Schmitz VAN VLIET - EBH ADVOCATEN s.t.
26 Jan Kuyckx LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
27 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
28 Jakob Fuglsang TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
29 Daniele Nardello TEAM LPR s.t.
30 Holger Sievers TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
31 Glen Alan Chadwick NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
32 Jan Valach ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
33 Luca Celli TEAM LPR s.t.
34 Maurizio Bellin TEAM LPR s.t.
35 Geraint Thomas BARLOWORLD s.t. 42 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
48 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
84 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'23
Whatever happens we would have a new winner of Paris-Roubaix. Last year's Fabian Cancellara is injured while Tom Boonen does not ride. Technically Magnus Bäckstedt, Peter van Petegem, Servais Knavrn or Frédéric Guesdon could win for the 2nd time but it is extremely unlikely.
The favourite for the race is undoubtedly Alessandro Ballan.
The ProTour leader, shown above with Wesemann, the Continental leader. Ballan won in Ronde van Vlaanderen and Gent Wevelgem and is looking to complete the triple.
A group of 5 get some 'TV Time' forgetting the fact that television channels wont be broadcasting the early part of the race!
The first notable incident came when O'Grady puncturing, but with the peleton stretched out, it did not mean much. At one point, the front of the peleton was 3km ahead of the back of the peleton!
The break was caught but no attacks came and it was just a case of slow attrition. Mattan still had Nolf, Pliuschkin and Mouris with him with 70km to go. Nolf and Pliuschin both had full blue bars, like Mattan while Mouris had 2 red bars.
Pliuschin then punctured:
By the time he caught Mattan up again with 61km to go, he had very little blue bar and 1 red bar.
The action began with David Kopp attacking with 47km to go. It came to nothing but it was the signal for the riders to get ready to attack.
Gusev then punctured at the worst possible point as Burghardt, Flecha, O'Grady, Guesdon and Van Impe attacked.
Discovery then made a bigblunder by sending Hincapie back to help Gusev ruining Hincapie's hopes of a win.
The 5 attackers are caught and Ballan then counters.
I was completely caught out and Mattan and Nolf were trapped in E3 (Pliuschin had already been dropped).
Ballan is obviously in form and pulled away, gaining a 1 minute lead in just 9km. The chasing group consists of Burghardt, Flecha, O'Grady, Van Impe, Hoste, Pozzato, Guesdon and Wesemann. Nuyens, Kopp, Ivanov and Mattan are a further 1'20 down.
Wesemann and Guesdon are dropped from the chase group while a fast tempo from Hincapie helps him, Gusev, Gilbert and Klier to link up with Mattan's group.
With 10km to go Ballan exited the final cobbles with a 1'41 lead as Van Impe punctured from the chase group. Just as Mattan leaves the final cobblestones, disaster strikes!
At least he took Klier down with him.
Mattan and Klier picked themselves off the floor and were now in the next group which included Nolf, Hammond and Leukemens.
Up front Ballan is about to enter the Velodrome, looking set to take a fantastic win, what could go wrong???
Well, he could crash....
After spending what seems like forever on the ground, Ballan gets going and amazingly - he still leads having accumulated such a great gap.
And he hangs on to win!!
Mattan has 1 lap to go, and a fast tempo has split his group leaving only Coyot and Hammond behind him. Nolf is visible a little further back but is about to receive his 4th red bar.
Mattan blows away Coyot and even beats Hammond for 16th - if it hadnt have been for his crash, I reckon he could have got 12th. Nolf finished 23rd while Pliuchkin was 34th. No other DFL finished as the Cyanide Auto-Abandon kicked in with Mouris having just 1km to go, and Lloyd, Oliphant and De Weerdt still yet to enter the velodrome. My 8th rider, Vennell, had crashed out earlier in the race but is fortunately not injured.
1 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL 7h56'35
2 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
3 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
4 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
5 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
6 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK s.t.
7 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 1'07
8 Frederic Guesdon FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'36
9 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'58
10 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
11 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER s.t.
12 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
13 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
14 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
15 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA + 3'06 16 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'43
17 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
18 Arnaud Coyot UNIBET.COM + 5'24
19 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
20 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS s.t.
21 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
22 Enrico Franzoï LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 23 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'06
24 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 7'08
25 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS + 8'18
26 Andy Flickinger BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
27 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
28 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
29 Laurent Mangel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
30 Jesús Del Nero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
31 Wim De Vocht PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
32 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS s.t.
33 Christophe Mengin FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 9'44 34 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'09
35 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 12'10
36 Staf Scheirlinckx COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
37 Wilfried Cretskens QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
38 Renaud Dion AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
39 Thomas Voeckler BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
40 Franck Rénier BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
41 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
42 Cédric Vasseur QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
43 Fabio Baldato LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
44 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK s.t.
45 Björn Schröder TEAM MILRAM s.t.
46 Johan Vansummeren PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 13'26
47 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 14'25
48 Ludovic Auger FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 14'49
49 Jeremy Hunt UNIBET.COM + 16'17
50 Dimitri Muravyev TEAM ASTANA s.t.
Just 96 out of the 193 starters finished the race.
After very little action throughout, Pozzato attacks with 24km to go.
Burghardt and Van Impe joined him, while Mattan, Nolf, Hoste and Flecha were in the chasing group.
Hoste and Flecha seemed reluctant to chase hard and the front 3 would fight for victory.
Burghardt and Pozzato were equal all the way to the line but the young German could not manage to edge in front. Pozzato wins!
Mattan was the strongest sprinter of the next 4 and led the sprint with Nolf following him. My plan worked and they took 4th and 5th.
I forgot to focus on Pliuschin after Nolf and Mattan attacked and he got dropped by the next group, meaning we wouldn’t win the teams classification. Oh well.
11 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
12 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
14 Andy Cappelle LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
15 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
16 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
17 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS s.t.
18 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
19 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
20 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
21 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
22 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK s.t.
23 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
24 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
25 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS s.t.
26 Servais Knaven T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
27 Wim De Vocht PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
28 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
29 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
30 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS + 4'13
31 Johan Vansummeren PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t. 32 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'44
33 Jeremy Hunt UNIBET.COM s.t.
34 Jan Boven RABOBANK s.t.
35 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
36 Wilfried Cretskens QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
37 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
38 Cédric Vasseur QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
39 Frederik Veuchelen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
40 Evert Verbist CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
---
Santiago Botero won the National TT Champs as Juan Pablo Wilches came in last.
1 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL 1h01'20
2 Victor Hugo Peña UNIBET.COM + 14
3 Julián Rodas UNE - ORBITEL + 27
4 Alexis Rojas Diaz COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES + 1'09
5 Rigoberto Urán UNIBET.COM s.t.
6 José Serpa SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 1'11
7 Juan Carlos López UNE - ORBITEL + 1'22
8 Iván Parra COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 1'23
9 Juan Pablo Forero COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES + 1'26
10 Alejandro Ramírez UNE - ORBITEL + 1'35
11 Mauricio Soler BARLOWORLD s.t.
12 Edwin Parra COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES + 1'43
13 Carlos Eduardo Alzate COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES + 1'44
14 Walter Pedraza SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 1'45
15 Javier González UNE - ORBITEL + 1'48 33 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'10
169km to go: 5 riders attack, including Wilches.
33km to go: Lead is up to 14 minutes as Wilches is dropped
20km to go: The break have lapped the peleton
2.3km to go: The sprint starts
Marentes of Colombia es Pasion is the strongest sprinter, and is following Ramirez of Une Orbitel. Serpa (Selle Italia) and Rubiano (Panaria) have no chance.
Since Marentes doesnt even sprint, Ramirez wins.
Wilches comes in 5th, in what I suspect will be his only good race of his career (I definately will not be re-signing him).
Five Colombia es Pasion riders pull away from the peleton on their final lap, while Uran, Soler and Pena crash.
1 Alejandro Ramírez UNE - ORBITEL 4h13'11
2 José Serpa SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA s.t.
3 Miguel Ángel Rubiano CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
4 Wilson Marentes COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t. 5 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'00
6 Juan Pablo Forero COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES + 14'57
7 Jairo Salas COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
8 Carlos Eduardo Alzate COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
9 Andrés Miguel Díaz COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
10 Rafael Aníbal Montiel COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
11 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 15'50
12 Jaime Castañeda LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
13 Alexis Castro COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
14 Félix Cárdenas BARLOWORLD s.t.
15 Alexis Rojas Diaz COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
16 Juan Carlos López UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
17 Edwin Orozco UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
18 Giovanny Báez UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
19 Marlon Pérez TEAM UNIVERSAL CAFFÉ - ECOPETROL s.t.
20 Freddy Piamonte UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
21 Luis Felipe Laverde CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
22 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
23 Hector Orlando Mesa UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
24 Giovanni Chacón UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
25 Walter Pedraza SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA s.t.
26 Mauricio Ardila RABOBANK s.t.
27 Iván Parra COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
28 Freddy González COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
29 Nilton Alexis Ortiz TEAM UNIVERSAL CAFFÉ - ECOPETROL s.t.
30 Óscar Álvarez UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
31 Fabio Duarte SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA s.t.
32 Rigoberto Urán UNIBET.COM + 17'00
33 Mauricio Soler BARLOWORLD s.t.
34 Victor Hugo Peña UNIBET.COM s.t.
The Tour du Finistere is a very tough hilly circuit and may well be too hard for Pliuschin to deliver a good result.
He was one of 8 riders to attack late on though, along with Benoit Salmon, Gerrit Glomser, Jérôme Pineau, John Gadret, Patrice Halgand, Sandy Casar, and Sylvain Chavanel.
After the attacks they split into two groups with Gadret, Casar and Pineau leading ahead of the other 5. More attacks on the final climb of the main hill split things up even more.
Pineau went solo ahead of a solo Gadret, a solo Casar, a solo Chavanel and a solo Halgand. With Glomser and Salmon and Pliuschin further back.
Pineau did not feel the need to sprint and he almost regretted it as Gadret closed in very fast at the finish, but Pineau would still win.
Pliuschin came in 8th, last of the 8 attackers.
1 Jérôme Pineau BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM 4h18'25
2 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
3 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 38
4 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 1'06
5 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'19
6 Benoit Salmon AGRITUBEL + 1'37
7 Gerrit Glomser TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t. 8 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
9 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 3'01
10 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
11 Simon Gerrans AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
12 Staf Scheirlinckx COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
13 Sylvain Calzati AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
14 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
15 Frédéric Finot ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
16 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
17 Rémy Di Gregorio FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
18 Mikaël Chérel FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
19 Christophe Mengin FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
20 Mickaël Larpe ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t. 21 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
22 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
23 Nicolas Crosbie BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
24 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
25 Christophe Le Mével CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
26 Cyrille Monnerais FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
27 Rémi Pauriol CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
28 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
29 Paul Brousse ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
30 Steve Zampieri COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
31 Anthony Charteau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
32 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
33 Andy Flickinger BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
34 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 s.t.
35 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
36 Arnaud Lesvenan ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
37 Huub Duyn TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
38 Stef Clement BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
39 Jean-Patrick Nazon AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t. 40 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
84 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'08
86 Matti Helminen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
87 David Harrigan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
106 Adam Blyth DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'16
107 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
The plan: Pliuschin to destroy the field on the cobbles as all 3 team up to get a win for either Nolf or Mattan. Ideally Nolf as a reward for his hard work, but if form of the day does not favour him, then Mattan who is ranked well in the continental tour. I am confident of victory as both Nolf and Mattan are 3-star favourites in a weak field of 108.
The mouse shows the start of the key area where Pliuschin will get to work.
As things turned out, I made Pliuschin work on all of the cobbles sections before the targeted area, to weaken up the peleton. Strong winds would only help our cause.
After I used my non-cobbled guys to set a quick tempo, it was Pliuschin time:
The field is already getting stretched after 6 kilometres - all of my helpers have now filled thier red bars!
Just 14km after the start of the work, its gone better than I expected as I recruit Nolf to help
With 74km to go, 22km after the initial burst, here is how things stand: E1: Nolf, Pliuschin, Mattan and Mangle (Ag2r) E2 +41: Dion, Elmiger (Ag2r) E3 +1'32 to E1: Joly (Francaise des Jeux) E4 +2'42 to E1: Group of 14, including Omloop (Jartazi), Bodrogi (Credit Agricole) and Florencio (Bouygues)
After a couple more cobbled sections, we say goodbye to Mangel.
A fairly long flat section comes next, which is too much for Pliuschin who finally cracks.
Elmiger and Mangel of Ag2r are still just 40 seconds behind Mattan/Nolf with 38km to go as we enter the next stretch of cobbles and Mattan decides to go on alone.
Nolf drops back to the Ag2r duo and after just 6 kilometres, Mattan is 2'40 ahead of the trio!!! Fate then hands Nolf a cruel blow.
Not long after this puncture, it becomes obvious that Mangel is out of energy, but Nolf can not catch him in time before running out of energy himself.
With 12km to go, he is caught by a group of 4: Omloop, Renier, Bodrogi and Florencio.
They are 9 minutes and 39 seconds behind Mattan!! Mangel is around 40 seconds ahead of these 5 while Elmiger is not very far ahead of Mangel.
Pliuschin meanwhile is in 9th position on the road, metres ahead of Joly, who - like him, is out of energy. They are 11'22 behind Mattan.
We almost forgot about one man. The dominator of the day: Nico Mattan.
WINNER!!!
Elmiger hung on for 2nd with Omloop 3rd.
Nolf was 8th, although without the puncture, I believe he would have finished ahead of Mangel and therefore have finished 4th. Pliuschin was 9th.
Of the 109 starters only 27 finished - the other 81 abandoned for going too slow!!!
11 Huub Duyn TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 16'09
12 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 16'53
13 Christophe Detilloux FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
14 Ludovic Auger FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
15 Ronny Poelvoorde BABES ONLY - VILLAPARK LINGEMEER - FLANDERS s.t.
16 Frédéric Finot ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
17 David Derepas ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
18 Ludovic Capelle ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
19 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL s.t.
20 Frank Høj COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 17'27
21 Anthony Colin ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
22 Renaud Dion AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
23 Aivaras Baranauskas AGRITUBEL s.t.
24 Tristan Valentin COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
25 Saïd Haddou BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 18'08
26 Steven Tronet ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
27 Stéphane Augé COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 19'00
Is there really any question on who wons the teams classification?
Having won all 3 cobbled classics, Ballan has become the ProTour leader.
Notable mention to Kim Kirchen, 2nd in the ProTour by 2 points. He won a stage and the overall title in Pais Vasco, plus victory in Liege Bastogne Liege and 2nd in Fleche Wallone.
DFL Rider of the Month: Aleksandr Pliuchsin
Our young moldovan lept from 90th to 12th in the Continental rankings having featured in the Top 10 on occasions this month, Pliuschin did enough to hold off Mattan to become our rider of the month. He punched above his weight in the hills, taking 1st in the Hel van Het Mergelland plus 3rd in Rund um Koln and Profronde van Drenthe. Top 10s in the Tro-Bro Leon, Tour de Finistere and 2 stages in the De Panne tour, in which he finished 18th overall all showed aspects of consistency.
Nico Mattan was unlucky to not win this prize for the 3rd month in a row. A dominating win in Tro-Bro Leon was the icing on the cake for a month which saw him 4th in his main target of the season, beating our wildest expectations. He is now 3rd in the Continental tour and hopes to maybe be in the top 10 come the end of the season. He has alsdo been in the top 20 of the Superprestige rankings for the latter half of April.
Brit of the Month: Roger Hammond
11th overall in the De Panne tour following 2 top 10 stage finishes, Roger was let down by his TT skills. Also took 17th in Paris-Roubaix but was on a whole disappointing this cobbled season.
Look Ahead:
We have more stage races planned this month, as well as the final Spring cobbled race in Demark.
