Eneco’s 1st Stage Among Most Exciting Days of Racing

No Comments | August 23rd, 2007 | Trackback

this season. The doping tarnished battles on the mountains of le Tour are the only thing I can think of that rivaled today’s stage in the Flemish Ardennes.

I missed most of the race because of work, but you can join me later and watch a replay or hilites here on the cycling.tv website. Even at the free 400 kps rate, this race will be a joy for any cycling fan to watch.

The attacks started about 60 km from the finish line and never stopped. A fairly large group broke way early and established a lead of about 6 minutes before a very large chasing group brought it back within striking distance. David Millar pulled great turns to catch the front group, obviously expecting to win the stage. At that point riders began bridging the gap, both alone and in small groups.

CCaisse d’Epargne and Discovery’s Vladimir Gustev (Russia) must have this stage “Puncture Day”. Both were plagued by flats and misfortunes.

Gusev suffered a puncture shortly after he had worked his way into the lead group. Popovych was nowhere near the front of the race, so Discovery elected to send three riders back to protect their new de facto team leader. After plenty of hard work by all four riders, Gusev worked his way back up to the first chase riding less than 20 seconds behind the two race leaders only to collide with another rider (from Cofidis?), suffer a terrible fall, and finish about 4 minutes back. Gusev’s hip and thigh greatly resembled Moreau’s and Vinikourouv’s during le Tour.

Skil - Shimano had a rider near the front all day, but he was dropped with less than 5k to go. The chases and attacks continued all the way to the finish along another course that sometimes looked like it had been designed by cycling’s Marquis de Sade. The winding narrow roads through Eupen, Belgium, looked like they were almost designed to cause crashes.

Cofidis retains the leader’s jersey as homeboy Nick Nuyens won the stage. He was followed by Rabobank’s Thomas Dekker, Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d’Epargne) and Britain’s David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir) all sharing the same time. I am not sure how the GC will be impacted by the time bonuses, all of which were hotly contested throuhout the stage.

Do yourself a favor. Watch the video of this stage as soon as you can. You will not be disappointed.