Today the second stage of the Tour of Spain took place on the Dutch roads between Assen and Emmen over a total distance of 203,7 kilometers.
Immediately in the first kilometer 5 riders escaped from the peloton: Francisco José Martinez Perez (Andalucia Cajasur), David Garcia Da Peña (Xacobeo Galicia), Tom Leezer (Rabobank), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) and Dominik Roels (Milram). These riders managed to get a maximum gap of 7 minutes but at about 40 kilometers from the finish this gap was reduced to only 2 minutes.
At 28 kilometers from the finish the riders had to pass a paved zone of about one and an halve kilometers and in that zone Francisco José Martinez Perez could not follow the 4 others who at that time had a gap of only 30 seconds on the peloton.
A few kilometers further the Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra attacked alone, probably to honour his father who he lost a few days before the start of this Tour of Spain. At about 10 kilometers from the finish he gave up his solo adventure by waving to the camera ... a bit later the whole peloton was back together.
Everything was thus ready for the stage to end in a final sprint and in the last few kilometers the full Columbia HTC team was leading the peloton to prepare a sprint final for their sprinter in this Vuelta, André Greipel. At three kilometers from the finish the QuickStep team of the Belgian champion Tom Boonen also tried to find a spot at the head of the peloton, just like David Millar of the Garmin Slipstream team for the sprinter of his team, Tyler Farrar.
Tom Boonen, who would have loved taking over the leader's jersey of the GC, began his sprint way too early and couldn't keep up ... the winner was a bit of a surprise: Gerald Ciolek of the Milram team who won the sprint ahead of Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas) and Roger Hammond (Cervélo TestTeam).
Greipel and Farrar finally finish 4th and 5th while Tom Boonen takes the 8th place.
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The rankings
Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) keeps his leader's jersey for the general classification.The general classification is now as follows:
1/ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) - 4h48m32s
2/ Gerald Ciolek (Milram) - +0'08"
3/ Tom Boonen (QuickStep) - +0'09"
4/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) - +0'12"
5/ Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - +0'14"
6/ Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) - +0'16"
7/ David Garcia (Xacobeo Galicia) - +0'18"
8/ Ivan Basso (Liquigas) - +0'18"
9/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'18"
10/ Bert Grabsch (Columbia HTC) - 0'19"
The highest point of this stage was at about 15 meters above sea level!!! The organisatie of the Vuelta called this a mountain of the 4th category and marked this highest point clearly on the road without however giving out any points for the best climber's ranking. At this place they did however keep track of the order in which the riders passed it to give out the first best climber's jersey. Tom Leezer (Rabobank) arrived here first so he takes the first climber's jersey.Tom Boonen leads the classification by points with the same number of points as Tyler Farrar :
1/ Tom Boonen (QuickStep) - 28
2/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) - 28
3/ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) - 25
4/ Gerald Ciolek (Milram) - 25
5/ Fabio Sabatini (Liquigas) - 20
photos Gerald Ciolek with the champagne, Fabian Cancellara and Tom Leezer - © Unipublic door Thomas Vergouwen
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1 comment | 2309 views
this publication is published in: Vuelta a España | Cycling general (except Tour de France) | Vuelta a España 2009
by Galinier over
Dank u voor het verslag ik hoop je kunt het volgen tot op het einde. Ik lees en volg je iedere dag. bestaat er ook een kaart op google earth?
hoe kan ik de aangegeven rit (tour de france )in een duidelijker lijn aanbrengen sommige zijn in een dunne zwarte streep andere daar en tegen duidelijk in een dikke rode streep groetjes yvan