The time trial in Sittard-Geleen will most likely be the key stage in this Eneco Tour. The stage is only 14 kilometers long but even over that distance some of the specialist will be able to put significant time over the rest of the favorites. It will likely be bigger considering the strong wind that the riders will have to suffer. It is blowing against the riders as they go out of town and will help them back when they are heading towards the finish line. Nevertheless, even though some riders will be far, we still expect the gaps between the top riders to be small enough that we will have a battle during the rest of the stages.
Cameron Meyer (Trek) was the first of the favorites to start the race. He was way down in the GC due to a crash he suffered earlier in the week. This meant that he lost more than 2 minutes and any options in the GC. Additionally, the bruises have been bothering him ever since. Nevertheless, he did not have to exert himself too much to clearly beat George Hincapie (BMC), who had set the early pace. The Australian put 50 seconds of the American, a sign that he might be recovering from the injuries he suffered all right. He could well be a contender for the win if the wind conditions change during the day.
Most of the favorites for the time trial were sitting 21 seconds behind Lloyd Mondory in the GC and Fabian Cancellara (Cannondale) was the first of those starting the stage. The Swiss was quite strong on the way to the intermediate check but, even though he posted the best time at that stage, he could not improve on Cameron Meyer's time at the finish line. Cancellara was 2nd, 10 seconds behind the Australian, which was a considerable loss in the last few kilometers. This is proof that Meyer had recovered from his crash as Cancellara was expected to be at least among the top 5 in the stage.
The next of the favorites to start was Levi Leipheimer (Trek). The American is not the top notch time trialist that other of the favorites are but he still took a 3rd provisional time, 19 seconds behind Cameron Meyer. Leipheimer is a rider that should be in the mix for tomorrow's stage finishing in La Redoute and he has already won twice this season. Nevertheless, his only appearance in a podium of a stage race so far goes back to the 2015 Tour de Romandie. He has many good positions in GCs but he has been lacking the quality to jump to the next level in the same manner that a rider like Tony Martin has done this year.
The clear dominator of the time trials this season has been Tony Martin (Lotto). The German came from being a domestique for a few years to getting results during the last couple of season that have put him among the top riders in the World. He is therefore one of the candidates for the win today and in the GC of the Eneco Tour. His performance was, as expected, very solid and he comfortably took the best provisional time at the finish line, putting 12 seconds between his time and Cameron Meyer's. Martin has already won the Tour de Romandie thanks to his performance in the time trials so he will be closely watched by the other favorites in the stages remaining.
A third Trek rider was among the favorites to win the stage: Michael Rogers (Trek). The Australian has been one of the very good riders against the clock in the peloton, but a step behind the top riders. It has also been a while since he last won a stage, in the 2015 Tour de Suisse. Taking this into account, his result today cannot be surprising as he took the 4th provisional spot at the finish line, 30 seconds behind Tony Martin and only 1 second better than his teammate Levi Leipheimer. This will put him in the mix for a podium finish in the GC, which would be the first in his career.
The last of the big favorites to start the stage was David Millar (HTC). The British was touted to be the next dominating rider but he found tough competence from Tony Martin. However, the result today was different as Millar was able to improve on Tony Martin's time and take the best provisional time at the finish line with a gap of 10 seconds over the German. It is unlikely that Millar will lose the time trial considering the riders that are left to ride but the conditions have been steadily improving during the day and he probably benefited from the better wind conditions at the time he run. Nevertheless, Martin only started 10 minutes before so that should not be the difference between them.
Mark Renshaw (BMC) had managed to put himself in the 4th position of the GC before the time trial and was probably the best rider against the clock among those in the top places of the GC. Therefore, he pushed considerably in the stage and managed to get a respectable 14th provisional place. Nevertheless, he lost 55 seconds against David Millar, which will put him far behind in the fight for a podium. Renshaw's target was probably not to grab a podium in the race but better conditions in the time trial might have meant that he would make more out of the bonus seconds he had got.
The third in the GC before today's time trial was Gianni Meersman (Orica). The Belgian had taken a lot of bonus seconds from breaks but his only result this season was the KoM jersey that he won in the Tour de Pologne last week. He was not really expected to be a contender and apparently he didn't even try as he may be paying for the efforts on the breaks earlier in the week. He crossed the finish line on the provisional 114th position, 1' 47'' behind David Millar. Meersman will probably try to get into breaks the rest of the week but his options in the GC are effectively over.
The clear best rider of the Eneco Tour so far has been Ben Swift (Vacansoleil), who took three stage wins and was sitting 2nd in the GC thanks to the many bonus seconds he accumulated. The gap he had and the length of the time trial meant that he tried his best in the time trial. He was 31st in the timesheet when he crossed the finish line, 1' 08'' behind David Millar. That will leave him just outside the top 10 in the GC. In principle, his work this week was done and dusted in the flat stages but the fact that Vacansoleil does not have any other rider involved in the GC might mean that he is free to try and hold on with the best in the stages remaining.
The last rider to start the time trial was the leader, Lloyd Mondory (Etixx). The French is a very talented rider but the time trials are not his strength. If he was a bit stronger he might have had a chance in the GC but he was 68th today, losing 1' 25'' at the finish line. Nevertheless, we expect him to be among the challengers for the following stages, especially the last one finishing at Geraardsbergen. Etixx only has Jos van Emden (Etixx) ahead of him in the GC but it is unlikely that the team will ride for him as he will have a hard time surviving tomorrow's stage.
The time differences in today's stage were a bit bigger than expected. It was probably down to the strong headwind that the riders suffered on the first part of the time trial and that benefits the specialists. That will leave us with not too many riders that will have a chance in the GC as the gaps in the remaining stages should be counted in seconds rather than minutes. Nevertheless, those stages have been very entertaining in past editions of the Eneco Tour and this time it should not be different.
The penultimate stage of the Eneco Tour takes place in the area where the Liege - Bastogne - Liege takes place. The riders will start in Riemst, a town close to the Dutch border north of Liege but will soon head South towards a circuit around Aywaille. The most famous climb of the route will be La Redoute, at the bottom of which the stage will finish. It will be climbed twice before the finish, along with the climbs to the Cote de Chambralles and the Cote de Niaster. The stage is not too long at only 151 kilometers, enough to have slightly above 2,000 meters of climbing.
The first part of the stage was relatively straight-forward and a break formed rather quickly at the front. Among the 6 riders we could find Cameron Meyer (Trek), Andriy Grivko (Giant), Jens Debusschere (LottoNL), Ian Stannard (Sky) and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data). They got to the Cote de Foret, the first serious climb of the day with a gap of 5 minutes over the main bunch. However, they were not at the final circuit yet and they had 84 kilometers to the finish line. Meanwhile, HTC was setting the pace in the group but had no rush on catching.
Some of the sprinters still had the legs to fight for the intermediate sprint at the top of La Redoute. Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) was the quickest ahead of Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) and Theo Bos (Cannondale). It was quite a feature for Bos to be able to grab a few points considering that he is one of the weakest riders over the hills. Nevertheless, their stage was basically finishied with 59 kilometers to the finish line. Meanwhile, HTC were still controlling the group with riders like Luke Rowe (HTC) and Michal Golas (HTC) and the gap to the front decreased to 3' 45''.
One lap had gone by and the break was still ahead with 30 kilometers to go. Giampaolo Caruso (FDJ) was leading the grouo at the second climb to Le Redoute but their gap had decreased to 2' 10'' and the pace at the peloton was starting to increase. HTC was still at the front but it would not be unthinkable for the group of 85 units that was starting the climb to be broken into pieces at the top. It may be too far away for an attack of a favorite, especially considering that the gaps in the GC are not that big, but many riders should suffer in this climb.
The false flat at the top of La Redoute is typically a good place to attack as riders are still recovering from the climb and Anlessandro Ballan (BMC) did it at that point. He was followed by Tim Wellens (Etixx) but they were immediately chased by Cannondale, who took to the front of the bunch for the first time today. They put good riders like Michael Matthews (Cannondale) and Jurgen van den Broeck (Cannondale) to set the pace and the gap to the early break dropped to 1' 30'' with 20 kilometers to go. Among the victims of La Redoute we could see important riders like Jose Serpa (Ag2r) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale).
The Cote de Chambralles was the penultimate climb of the day and Giampaolo Caruso decided to attack at the front of the race. He was joined by Cameron Meyer and they got to the top of the climb with 15'' over the rest of the break. Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil) also tried to attack in the previous decent from the peloton and, while Alessandro Ballan and Tom Boonen (BMC) tried to join, it was a short lived attempt. The gap to the peloton had come down to 1' 10'' but there were no serious attacks yet in the bunch as Lotto came forward to pick up the pace.
The Cote de Niaster was the last climb of the day, with 3.1 kilometers averaging 4.8% gradient. It was the place where a much more serious attack from Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto) took place after his teammates had upped the pace in the last climb. He quickly left the riders from the early break behind and was on his own at the top of the climb, with 7 kilometers to go. Rui Costa (Ag2r) and David Millar (HTC) initially tried to go with him but were already losing 15 seconds at the top of the hill, while the bunch was 25 seconds behind the Belgian. They had a quick descent to Aywaille before the finish line at La Redoute.
David Millar and Rui Costa were caught back by the group but Bjorn Leukemans was too strong and with 2 kilometers to go he had extended his lead to 45 seconds. Being a great rouleur surely helped him in the few flat kilometers before the finish line. Meanwhile, Michael Rogers (Trek) tried to attack in the main group followed by Mikel Nieve (Katusha) and Levi Leipheimer (Trek). However, Cannondale was still controlling the pace for Fabian Cancellara (Cannondale), who is 3rd in the GC and would have a perfect day to attack tomorrow in the cobbles.
Michael Rogers led the final sprint in the main peloton but Bjorn Leukemans had a 40 seconds gap with less than 1 kilometer to go and was unlikely to be caught. We could also see riders like Mikel Nieve, Levi Leipheimer, Rui Costa, Johan Vasummeren (HTC) and Wilco Kelderman (Giant) close to the front. All of them are riders better known for their climbing abilities than for their sprints but today's stage was quite hard. Nevertheless, we could find quick riders in that group that had survived the stage, like Michael Matthews, Ben Swift (Vacansoleil) and Lloyd Mondory (Etixx).
Bjorn Leukemans wins in Aywaille! It was a very dominant win from the Belgian, who attacked at the Cote de Niaster not to be caught again before the finish line. Leukemans is a rider that has been more likely to win in cobbled classics than in the hills in the last couple of years but today he was clearly the strongest. The gap he got at the finish line might have been more due to the fact that he was far behind after the time trial but he still did a very good effort. This is only his 2nd win of the year after winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen in the spring.
The peloton crossed the finish line 27 seconds behind Leukemans. It was led by another classics specialist, Johan Vansummeren. The third place went to another strong hills rider like Joost van Leijen (Giant) while the top 5 was completed with Jurgen van den Broeck and Levi Leipheimer. The GC did not change much as all the riders in the top 10 made it to the finish line in the main bunch. Leukemans jumped a few places up to the 11th position. Nevertheless, given the narrow margins it will all go down to the last cobbles stage in Geraardsbergen.
The last stage of the Eneco Tour is no walk in the park as the riders will have to face 207 kilometers between Tienen and Geraardsbergen. The route is labelled a mini-Flanders as the loops around the finishing town include the climbs to the Denderoodberg, the Bosberg and the Muur van Geraardsbergen. That should be enough to put many riders in difficulties and the cobbled specialists might have a chance to open gaps. Given the gaps that time trial generated the route might not be hard enough to take the current top riders in the GC from their spots but if the stage is hard enough it might be possible.
The early break took no time to be formed as it was the first attack that succeeded and there were no teams in the peloton trying to prevent it. A group of 8 went away including Thor Hushovd (FDJ), Miguel Rubiano (Ag2r), Mikel Nieve (Katusha), Lars Boom (Giant) and Cameron Meyer (Trek). Rubiano was quite dangerous in the GC as he was only 1' 18'' behind the leader and with 130 kilometers to go they had a gap of 8 minutes over the main bunch. It was a quiet day in the peloton so far with Lotto and Cannondale setting a rather slow pace.
The first passage through the finish line and the Muur van Geraardsbergen was done with 89 kilometers to go. Cannondale had taken over the responsibility to bring back the big gap that the break had and they were leading the race with Matti Breschel (Cannondale) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale). Lotto was also collaborating at the front but Rohan Dennis (Lotto), the best young rider so far, had just crashed in the descent towards the Muur. The peloton was quite stretched in the climb but it did not look like any team wanted a battle yet. Meanwhile, the break was already at the Bosberg, the next cobbled climb.
The second intermediate sprint was at the top of the Tenbosse, a climb at the town of Brakel. Miguel Rubiano was quickest in the break, beating Cameron Meyer and Mikel Nieve for the bonus seconds. With 47 kilometers to go, their gap had quickly come down to 2' 40''. There was a lot of wind today and it was not helping their cause. Back at the peloton, HTC had finally started to contribute to the work at the front of the bunch and Simon Geschke (HTC) was working hard. The work in the bunch was paying off but David Millar (HTC) is not the best of the cobblers and he might not want a hard stage to try to protect his lead.
Tom Boonen (BMC) attacked in the second climb to the Muur van Geraardsbergen and he got to the break as they started to climb the Bosberg. It was a very serious attack by the Belgian but the chasers were lucky that Johan Vansummeren (HTC) was working for David Millar today and the gap was not growing. At the top of the Bosberg, with 20 kilometers to go, Boonen was already alone at the front. He had a very difficult terrain ahead to fight against a powerhouse like Vansummeren but it would also be down to whether Millar was strong enough to stay in touch.
Tom Boonen could not stay ahead of the bunch but the attacks did not stop there and Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) jumped straight away. The French was struggling a bit given the headwind that he was suffering on the way back towards Geraardsbergen. He was followed by Boonen, Ben Swift (Vacansoleil) and Maxim Iglinskiy (Sky), who were only 10 seconds behind. The main bunch was 35 seconds behind but HTC had stopped chasing and it was Rein Taaramae (Katusha) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) mainly at the front. David Millar was always very close to the front of the bunch not to be surprised by the attacks.
The last climb of the day before the final half Muur was the Denderoodberg, which top was only a bit more than 5 kilometers from the finish line. Lloyd Mondory was still at the front at that point, even though he was almost caught by his chasers. The gaps were really small: 15 seconds over his 3 chasers and 30 seconds over the peloton, which may not be enough. However, if you had to choose a rider that could do it one of the first choices would be Mondory. Trek was chasing at the peloton with Giacomo Nizzolo and Tiesj Benoot (Trek) doing most of the work.
Lloyd Mondory's adventure finally came to an end with 2 kilometers to go in the descent towards Geraardsbergen. There was no truce and Giacomo Nizzolo attacked straight away as soon as they were caught. The pace in the last few kilometers was really strong and there were gaps starting to appear in the main bunch, which might lead to differences at the finish line. Among those riders that were a bit disappointing today we could name Fabian Cancellara (Cannondale). He started the day 3rd in the GC and this was his terrain. Seeing his teammates working earlier in the day everyone expected an attack from him to try to win the race.
The riders reached the bottom of the descent and started climbing towards the Muur, although the finish line was before the hardest part of the climb. Mark Renshaw (BMC) and Andre Greipel (Lotto) had gone past Giacomo Nizzolo and were opening a small gap at the front of the group. Other cobbled specialists like Johan Vansummeren and Lloyd Mondory were right behind but they had both worked hard in the last few kilometers and that may be a problem for them. They were followed by Maxim Iglinskiy and Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil), who are both capable riders in the cobbles.
Mark Renshaw wins in Geraardsbergen! The Australian hid in the peloton during the whole day and grabbed a win that had been elusive for him during the whole week. This is only his second win of the year but he has won in landmark places so far as his other win was in the Champs-Elysees. The 2nd place in the stage went to Andre Greipel and they both opened a 9 seconds gap at the finish line over a group including Lloyd Mondory, Johan Vansummeren, Giacomo Nizzolo and Stefan van Dijk. The peloton was very stretched after the last climb to the Denderoodberg and the final kilometer created many gaps in the bunch.
David Millar had dropped many positions in the closing kilometers but he ended up crossing the finish line 33 seconds behind the winner, which granted him the win in the GC of the 2017 Eneco Tour. However, the other 2 podium places went to Mark Renshaw and Giacomo Nizzolo. This highlights how important the last stage was in the overall race. Fabian Cancellara would finish 4th overall after losing 33 seconds as well at the finish line. This was a proof that he did not have the legs today. Things were even worse for Tony Martin as he dropped down the order after crossing the finish line 1' 31'' behind.
mpardo wrote:
Millar is only 32 in this parallel world. As all the riders I picked at the start of the story were given the same age, Sagan is also 32...
Yes I guess we all know, but it is good old Millar anyway
We already said a few years ago that Johan Vansummeren was a potential multiple monument winner and he did deliver on the prediction. He only had the 2012 Ronde van Vlaanderen back in the summer of 2013 but he went on to add another 2 Rondes and he took the Paris - Roubaix win for the first time this year. He also has another 3 podiums in his palmares. Vansummeren's relationship with the cobbled classics has been quite interesting as he has never won any of the lesser races. His best results are 2nd places in both the Gent - Wevelgem and the E3 Harelbeke. This may be down to the fact that the Belgian is too slow sprinting and those races are seldom decided with a solo attack.
It is also interesting that Johan Vansummeren has been more successful in the Ronde than in Roubaix. Given his characteristics, one would think that the hills in the Belgian race would be more favorable to other riders like Bjorn Leukemans and Lloyd Mondory among his rivals in the recent years. However, he was able to win the race 3 times in a row. The Belgian has been a fighter throughout his career and he has legs that are the envy of many other riders in the peloton.
Even though he is considered a cobbles specialist, Vansummeren has been able to win quite a few times in other scenarios. The example of the Giro d'Italia is quite clear. He won 3 stages between 2011 and 2013 and even though he didn't really have options for the final win, he wore the pink jersey for many days during the second week of the 2013 Giro. The other race where he has shined is the Tour de Pologne. It is the only stage race that he has won and he also took 3 stages between 2013 and 2017. It is also the last stage that he has won, in a stage that was meant to be for the hills riders but ended up with a quite surprising win from Vansummeren.
In terms of his future career, Vansummeren is in his last year of the 2-season long contract he singed with HTC at the start of 2016. He had spent 6 years in Quickstep before that and the fact that Lloyd Mondory also is in his last season of his contract might give him a chance of returning to the Belgian squad. Nevertheless, Vansummeren is already 32 years old and he might be looking for a team to retire on in 3 - 4 years time. That may mean that he looks more to the money in this last contract than in the structure of the team that will allow him to add to his monument tally.
- Mark Renshaw (BMC Racing Team)
- Marcel Kittel (Astana Pro Team)
- Ben Swift (Vacansoleil - DMC)
- Andre Greipel (Lotto - Soudal)
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL - Jumbo), Alexander Kristoff and Elia Viviani (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Francisco Ventoso (Movistar Team), Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r - La Mondiale) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek - Segafredo).
