Dries Devenyns is arguably one of the most complete riders in the peloton. The Belgian can have good results in Grand Tours, Small Tours and hilly Classics. However, he has a lack of win in his career. The Belgian has won only once since the story started, but it was a quality win. Devenyns was able to outsprint Pozzatto and Rojas for the win in last year's Liege - Bastogne - Liege after the three of them had attacked in the last kilometers.
Devenyns' career started in the BMC Racing team, where he had a good season, especially as he got a top 10 finish in the Tour de France and a 5th in the Amstel Gold Race. However, he was overshadowed by George Hincapie in the team. The Belgian wanted to have the leading role in a team and he found that role at the new Quickstep outfit.
The love between Devenyns and Quickstep started at the Tirreno - Adriatico that year, where he took the 5th place. However, one of the greatest moments of the season was the Liege - Bastogne - Liege. For a Belgian like Devenyns, winning Liege in a Belgian team has to be the top of his career. The cheerful Belgian crowd contributed to make the moment special.
Devenyns hasn't won again since that day, but he has raised his level especially in the high mountains this year. That improvement led him to the 6th final spot in the Giro. He has been close to winning again (he has been 2nd three times this season already), but somehow something is always wrong. His consistency has also grown to a new level, as 6 top 10 finishes in races this year is something not many riders can match.
Wins:
2010
- 1st Liege - Bastogne - Liege
Other notable results:
- 5th 2009 Amstel Gold Race
- 8th 2009 Tour de France
- 5th 2010 Tirreno - Adriatico
- 5th 2010 Tour de Pologne
- 3rd 2010 GP Cycliste de Montreal
- 6th 2011 Volta a Catalunya
- 4th 2011 Gent - Wevelgem
- 5th 2011 Vuelta al Pais Vasco
- 3rd 2011 La Fleche Wallonne
- 6th 2011 Giro di Italia
- 9th 2011 Criterium du Dauphine
The second stage in the Netherlands is the first opportunity for the sprinters to grab a win. After the Dauphine and the Giro, the sprinters haven’t had plenty of chances to take wins, so this will be a nice opportunity for them. The usual favorites are far down the GC, as Farrar and Vinokourov both lost 17 seconds yesterday in the time trial, so they won’t have a shot for the yellow jersey today.
A couple of different groups were ahead of the peloton in the first half of the race. They eventually joined with 90 kilometers remaining and formed a group of as many as 13 riders. Among them were riders like Tom Boonen (Vacansoleil), Alberto Contador (Euskaltel), Giacomo Nizzolo (Sky), Fabian Cancellara and Davide Rebellin (Movistar). They didn’t have a big gap (5’ 45’’) but the size of the group rang some bells in the peloton and Saxo Bank started working.
Garmin and Rabobank took the responsibility of chasing when Saxo had already burnt out 3 riders. They gave a nice push to catch the break 19 kilometers from home, just before the last intermediate sprint. Kanstantsin Sivtsov, Vasili Kiryenka and Ryder Hesjedal were the last riders to be caught.
The Lotto train was the strongest as we head towards a mass sprint in Sint Willebrord. Bjorn Leukemans leads Andre Greipel, while Tyler Farrar and John Degenkolb have taken his wheel.
The sprint was very crowded today. The main sprinters progressed in the right, whie Kreuziger was on the other side of the road. The order as they entered the last kilometer was: Jose Joaquin Rojas, Roman Kreuziger, Andre Greipel and Tyler Farrar.
Tyler Farrar wins in Sint Willebrord! The American takes his 5th win of the season after narrowly beating Andreas Kloden and Jose Joaquin Rojas. Other than the final sprint the stage was rather uneventful. The break never stood a chance of making it, but Saxo Bank also showed some weakness to control the race. The riders from the Danish team seem to be focused in other targets for the season and not in good fitness.
There were no changes in the GC, only Farrar and Kloden made it into the top 10 after taking the bonus seconds in the finish. Farrar could have a shot at the yellow tomorrow, but it doesn’t look as though it will evade the Saxo Bank team.
The third stage of the Eneco Tour is again a chance for the sprinters. There are some cobbled sections in the initial part of the stage, but nothing to worry about as they are too far from the finish and the bunch will surely take things easy on them. Probably a rest day for the final win favorites.
The three riders in the break had it fairly easy to build a gap today, as the peloton took things easy in the early part of the stage. They were Igor Anton (Euskaltel), Yauheni Hutarovich (Lampre) and Jurgen Roelandts (Quickstep). There is also a strong wind today, but as the road has lots of twists it would be difficult to break the group. The gap was 6 minutes on the peloton with 95 kilometers remaining.
A very surprising attack happened with 58 kilometers remaining. One of the favorites for the overall win, Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto), jumped from the bunch. He was followed by Cavendish and Ballan. Saxo Bank control of the peloton was weak at best and they had to bring Matthew Goss to the front to fight against the three riders.
After a good work, Saxo Bank eventually reeled back in all of the groups in front. The bunch is quiet with 20 kilometers to go, what will allow Denis Menchov to rejoin the group after a puncture at a bad time was close to hamper his chances in the Eneco Tour. He is losing 1’ 30’’ at the time, but coming back quickly.
Ben Swift (Sky), Heinrich Haussler (HTC) and Matthew Goss (Saxo) tried a late attack taking advantage of the passiveness of the peloton. With 5 kilometers remaining they had built a gap of 40’’, so they were having a good shot at the win.
The break reached the last couple of kilometers with enough time to take the stage win. Ben Swift got an edge on Haussler as the sprint started. Matthew Goss seems to be paying for his earlier efforts bringing bask the Leukemans break and couldn’t keep up the pace in the sprint.
Ben Swift wins in Ardooie! The British rider completes a late break to get his first win of the season. Heinrich Haussler crossed the line right behind him, while Matthew Goss took the third place. The bunch came so close in the last kilometer that no time differences were awarded.
Samuel Sanchez has retained the lead in the GC, albeit Ben Swift has jumped to the second place overall after taking a lot of bonus seconds today. Haussler has also jumped to the top 5 of the GC and gets the white jersey from Menchov. Tomorrow’s stage will be the hardest of the race, so the favorites will be put to a test in the Ardennes hills.
Stage 4 is the most important in terms of the general classification apart from the time trials. The route starts flat, but once we head into the Ardennes it is a continuous up and down the hills. We will go through famous hills, like the Mur de Huy and the Mur d'Amay earlier in the race before entering a loop around the town of Andenne with plenty of hills. The last four consecutive hills will be the place where the race is decided.
The break of the day soon took shape. It was group of five riders, including Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel) and Yoann Offredo (Garmin). As they go through the Mur de Huy (104 km from home) they have a gap of 7' 10'' over the bunch. Saxo Bank was setting a slow pace in the peloton.
It seems like Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto) liked the attack far from home, he tried it at 58 km again. He had a much better chance today in a hilly stage. He was followed by Greg Van Avermaet and Janez Brajkovic and the trio soon started closing the gap to the break, which was 2' 40'' ahead.
The break kept a good lead with 3 hills and 28 kilometers remaining. They had 1' 30'' on the trio of followers and 2' 15'' on the bunch. There was little understanding in both chasing groups, but the leaders were facing the toughest part of the stage.
Fran Ventoso decided to leave his break fellows behind and reached the penultimate climb with 55 seconds on the rest of the break plus Brajkovic, Leukemans and Van Avermaet and 1' 40'' on the bunch. The Spaniard was putting the bunch in a difficult position, as he seemed to have plenty of energy left.
The peloton was able to catch the group of chasers and reduce the gap to Ventoso to 1' 15'' with 8 kilometers remaining. Rabobank is setting the pace, but it looks difficult that they will catch the Spaniard, who looks good for the win.
3 kilometers to go and Francisco Ventoso is sure to win the fourth stage at the Eneco Tour. He has 55 seconds over a bunch were everyone was very conservative in the last kilometers. It was strange that no rider wanted to attack in the last few hills, where the terrain would have favored the likes of Weening, Freire or Uran.
Francisco Ventoso wins in Andenne! The Spaniard held to the lead after a long break to take his second win of the year after a win in the Giro. The lack of ambition and understanding behind gave him enough room to take the win and surely the leader's jersey.
Jakob Fuglsang won the group sprint ahead of Rigoberto Uran and Oscar Freire. The group arrived 25 seconds behind Ventoso, what means that the Spaniard takes the leader's jersey, 25 seconds ahead of Uran and 26 seconds ahead of Sanchez and Swift.
Ventoso has a good chance of winning the Eneco Tour if he can overcome the effort of today's break. Tomorrow's time trial is short enough and there are no other stage where big gaps can be opened. Meanwhile, Rigoberto Uran is strengthening his lead in the points jersey. The Colombian did well last year in the Eneco Tour and is one of the leading riders again this year.
The World Championships in Copenhaguen are approaching fast, as there is only the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec between the Eneco Tour and the Worlds. This year's route is fairly flat, favoring the chances of the sprinters. The main teams have already sent their rosters for the road event:
ITALY
Damiano Cunego
Filippo Pozzato
Alessandro Ballan
Alessandro Petacchi
Marco Marcato
Domenico Pozzovivo
Giovanni Visconti
Ivan Basso
Emanuele Sella
The second time trial in the Eneco Tour takes place in the Dutch city of Roermond, located in the province of Limburg. The very flat 15 kilometers would suggest quite big differences in favor of the specialists. However, the two cobbled sections could level the field a little bit as happened last year.
The first favorite for the win in the stage was Lars Bak (Liquigas). He was 17th overall before the stage. The Danish rider lived up to the expectations by setting the best time in both the intermediate and finish. He set a 21’ 16’’, 1 second better than Pieter Weening.
Cameron Meyer (HTC) was also supposed to do well after his fifth spot in the prologue. The Australian was good again, setting the 4th provisional time 1 second behind Bak.
Oscar Freire (Rabobank) was the main favorite to take the win in the time trial and he proved it by setting the best time so far. He was lighting fast, 14 seconds better that Lars Bak. It will be very hard to beat the Spaniard’s time.
The American Taylor Phinney (Euskaltel) was also very good in the time trial of Roermond. He matched Lars Bak’s time 14 seconds behind Freire.
Jakob Fuglsang (Radioshack) was supposed to lose time on the favorites today, but surprisingly he was rather fast. He set the 11th time so far in the finish, losing only 16 seconds to Freire and matching the times of the likes of Mollema or Evans.
The young jersey leader, Heinrich Haussler (HTC), was supposed to lose the jersey to Menchov today. Although the Australian had a quite good time trial (47th provisional time, 19 seconds behind Freire) he lost the jersey to the Russian by only 1 second.
Ben Swift (Sky) is not a very good time trialist, but he did quite well only losing 18 seconds to Freire. The British will therefore lose only one position in the GC if everything ends as expected.
Samuel Sanchez (Saxo Bank) was one of the favorites for the stage win, but he was very disappointing. The Spaniard could only record the 21st time, 17 seconds behind Freire. That result means that Sanchez will lose the GC spot to Freire by 10 seconds. It will probably take more than some bonus seconds for him to be a contender in the GC.
Rigoberto Uran (Sky) was slightly better than Sanchez, but underachieved nevertheless as he ended 22nd, 17 seconds behind Freire. That result means that Freire will be at least 2nd in the GC, as he has overtaken everyone in the GC so far.
Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel) was expectedly slow, ending in the 112th position 23 seconds behind Freire. However, he was able to maintain the leader’s jersey by 10 seconds on his fellow Spaniard.
Ventoso now faces an easy sixth stage, where nothing is expected to happen and a final stage that may invite some of the riders within 30 seconds of the Euskaltel rider to try to attack and win the leader’s jersey. The advantage of Ventoso is that he may win some bonus seconds in one of the stages thanks to his sprinting abilities.
The sixth stage takes a flat route around the Belgian city of Genk. It will most probably be a chance for the sprinters to add another victory to their count.
The break of the day was rather big at 9 riders. It included Andy Schleck (Katusha), Bernhard Eisel (Vacansoleil), Tony Gallopin (Quickstep), Davide Rebellin (Movsitar) and Mathias Frank (Liquigas). They had built a nice lead of 6’ 20’’ with 95 kilometers remaining, but Euskaltel was already starting to chase at that time.
Andy Schleck had taken 6 bonus seconds in the first couple of sprints. However, it was Davide Rebellin who took the third one in Hallembaye Nord. With 35 kilometers remaining, the break was starting to improve its chances as the gap was still 3’ 20’’.
As the kilometers went by, it turned clearer that the bunch wasn’t going to catch the break. No other team helped Euskaltel and the Spaniard team was unable to chase down the escapees. 6 kilometers from home Van Leijen tried a strange move, as the peloton was still losing 1’ 40’’. The stage, and probably the GC, was in the break.
The break broke to pieces in the last two kilometers and Grega Bole, Tony Gallopin and Davide Rebellin seemed the strongest. The other riders hadn’t been able to stand the changes of pace in the final kilometers.
Davide Rebellin wins in Genk! The Italian is doing a great rookie season, as this is the second stage win for him, the first being in the Giro. Bole was the only rider to threaten his win, as Gallopin ended dropping a bit behind the leading duo.
Joost Van Leijen led the group through the finish line 1’ 33’’ behind the winner. Davide Rebellin is the new leader with 7 seconds on Andy Schleck and 8 on Tony Gallopin. The outcome of today’s stage was a massive surprise, as a mass sprint was widely expected considering the tight margins in the GC.
Euskaltel was the only team willing to chase down the break, but their riders were never able to decrease the gap at a high rate. It is surprising how other teams that should be defending their top positions in the GC and didn’t have anyone in the break didn’t help, like Sky, Saxo Bank or Rabobank.
Today’s stage is more difficult than the profile suggests, as there are many small hills in the route like the Cauberg twice. Being the last stage and with the first places in the GC so tight it could all go to the bonus seconds in the sprints and finish. Anyway, a reduced group sprint is expected in the finish.
The stage started slow, with many kilometers without attacks. There was not a lot of fighting when the break of the day attacked and took shape in an 8 rider group, including: Giovanni Visconti (Lampre), Mikel Nieve (BMC), Tom Boonen (Vacansoleil) and Romain Feillu (Euskaltel). They built a maximum gap of almost 7 minutes, but that had reduced to 5’ 35’’ at 80 kilometers from home.
The break reached the second intermediate, in Windraak, with a gap of 2’ 10’’. They are 28 km from the finish, so they might stand a chance to win the stage. Behind them, Saxo Bank and Movistar are taking the responsibility of chasing.
The break was eventually chased down with less than 10 km to go, as Lotto and HTC joined the chase. The last hills were a bit tough in the break, as only Visconti seemed to have the legs to give the break hopes.
Grega Bole (Lampre), 5th in the GC, crashed down in the start of the last uphill section. He would surely lose that place, as it took him long to recover. Matthias Frank (Liquigas), 7th in the GC, was also delayed in that hill and would have to fight his way back to the group. The sprint preparation was going to be rather messy, as many sprinters lost positions in this section.
Peter Sagan was the first rider to start sprinting, and he looked good, behind him came Lieuwe Westra, Filippo Pozzato and Rigoberto Uran. The men in the GC couldn’t reach the front to sprint and therefore Rebellin looks safe.
Pieter Weening wins in Sittard-Geleen! That was a terrific comeback from the Dutch. He was around the 8th position with 1 km remaining but progressed to beat Sagan in a photo finish result. Andre Greipel also had strong last meters to take the third position in the stage.
Davide Rebellin comfortably won the Eneco Tour in a surprising result. It seems like the Belgian – Dutch race is always resolved by a break, as the win from Steven Kruijswijk was built on a break in the 4th stage last year. Andy Schleck came second, the same place he got at the Dauphine. It looks like the Katusha rider will get a major win if he keeps riding like this.
The season enters it last races with a trip to Canada for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec. Last year in Montreal, Janez Brajkovic took the win in the first race of the story in America. The race in Quebec won't be as long as other classics nor as difficult. It takes place in a circuit inside the city with a couple of climbs, although not very hard it will most probably upset the mass sprint.
Favorites:
- Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto): The Belgian classics rider is still looking for a win this season. He has already been 2nd in Gent-Wevelgem and in the Fleche Wallonne, proving that he is one of the top riders for this kind of races. Lotto is in the chase for the top position in the World Tour, so some points from Leukemans would be welcome.
- Janez Brajkovic (Discovery): Brajkovic is the best puncheur this year so far. He has already won in the Pais Vasco and the Fleche Wallonne. He won in Canada last year and the route this year is good for him too.
- Jose JoaquÃn Rojas (Lotto): Lotto arrives in Canada with a very strong field, as Rojas is another good chance for the win today. Leukemans would need a very small group to win, but Rojas is a very fast rider that can grab the win even if a very big group arrives together.
- Filippo Pozzato (Lampre): The Italian arrives in Canada in top shape after a rather poor season. Pozzato is a very good puncheur that hasn't had many chances to prove his quality, as his best result has been 5th in the E3 Prijs.
The GP de Quebec is hillier than it seems at first sight. It takes place in a 12.5 kilometer long circuit inside the city. The 15 laps the riders will have to take bring the length of the race to 189 kilometers, not a very long distance for a classic.
Many breaks were brought down by the teams Discovery and Lotto in the first part of the race. It wasn’t until close to the half stage of the race that a group of 10 riders settled in front. The break included big names like: Pieter Weening (HTC), Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Thor Hushovd (Garmin), Oliver Zaugg (BMC) and Rinaldo Nocentini (Katusha). With 94 kilometers remaining they had a gap of 2’ 25’’, still manageable by the bunch.
The break split in two with a bit more than 2 laps to go. The three riders in front were Juanjo Cobo (Saxo Bank), John Gadret (Sky) and John Degenkolb (Lampre). As they ride through the finish line (25 km to go), they are 55 seconds ahead of the rest of the break and 1’ 50’’ ahead of the bunch.
The peloton caught the chasing group as they crossed the finish line for the last time. Discovery and Lotto were taking the responsibility for the chase. Meanwhile, the trio at the front had broken. Cobo was leading with 10 seconds on Gadret, 20 seconds on Degenkolb and 45 seconds on the bunch. He would find it very hard to maintain the lead.
As the escapees were being caught, George Hincapie (BMC) launched a very serious attack. He had 8 kilometers remaining and only Hubert Dupont seemed eager to respond to the acceleration by the American.
Several attacks happened a while later, with many riders trying their hand at a solo win. Jakob Fuglsang (Radioshack) would eventually catch Hincapie as they entered the last 4 kilometers of the race. Sylvain Chavanel and Roman Kreuziger were following close behind.
Janez Brajkovic (Discovery) had a great comeback and reached the front group in time to start the sprint. Chavanel and the Slovenian seemed the fittest and both jumped ahead in the slightly uphill finish part. Fuglsang and Kreuziger came behind.
Janez Brajkovic wins in Quebec! The Slovenian does it again and wins in Canada for the second year in a row. This is the third major victory for Brajkovic this year, after the Fleche Wallonne and the GC in the Basque Country.
Sylvain Chavanel was a close second, only losing some meters in the last part of the sprint. 17 seconds later than the leading duo arrived a group of 6 riders led by Dries Devenyns and Roman Kreuziger. Quickstep completed a great result, as his duo of puncheurs delivered two podium spots.
