After having taken the final victory of the Eneco Tour last year and winning the Eneco Tour 2008 prologue this year, José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) has won the Eneco Tour 2008 this afternoon in Mechelen (BE) in the decisive individual time trial by finishing second, just behind the Latvian Raivis Belohvoscicks (Scott-American Beef).

Last year's winner indeed won the prologue last Wednesday in Sittard-Geleen in the South of The Netherlands beating the French Cyril Lemoine (Crédit Agricole) with only 89 hundreds of a second. He therefore wore the white jersey of the Eneco Tour's leader during the first stage (when he first got it he thought the organisation made a mistake by giving him the jersey for the best young rider!).

The first stage between Beek and Roermond saw a victory for Tom Boonen (QuickStep) who won the sprint and Gutierrez kept the white jersey.

The following day, between Roermond and Nieuwegein, it was up to the German André Greipel (Columbia) who already won the Tour Down Under earlier this year. The white leader's jersey stayed on José Ivan Gutierrez' shoulders.

Between Nieuwegein and Terneuzen the third stage was won by Daniele Bennati (Liquigas), who beat Tom Boonen and Jurgen Roelandts in the sprint and also took the leader's jersey from Gutierrez.

The Eneco Tour then left to Belgium with a stage between Terneuzen (NL) and Ardooie (BE) and the stage was also won by a Belgian rider, Tom Boonen. That made a second stage win for him in this Eneco Tour and it was also his last stage since he then left to Spain to start in the Vuelta next Saturday. His red jersey of the ranking by points therefore automatically went to Kenny van Hummel the next day. Thanks to bonification seconds the German André Greipel took over the white leader's jersey.

The fifth stage between Ardooie and Oostende had a surprising finish, not only because the two riders Bodnar and Bak were taken back at 36 km from the finish but also because the QuickStep team which was almost completely in the first group of riders couldn't win the stage and that the German rider Carlo Westphal (Gerolsteiner), the only rider of this German team in this group, easily passed the other riders and thus won the stage. André Greipel again received the white leader's jersey after having finished fourth.

The forelast stage started yesterday in Maldegem and arrived in Brussel 186 km further. Yet another success for Team Columbia since the young Norvegian rider Edvald Boasson Hagen won the stage. Since the 9 leading riders were taken back by the pack only in the last kilometer and since there was a 90° bend just before the finish the riders who wanted to win this stage better had to be among the first at that time. Jimmy Engoulvent (Crédit Agricole) would have loved to win it but finally couldn't follow Boasson Hagen.
André Greipel again finished fourth and thus kept his white leader's jersey with a 11 seconds lead on the Spaniard Gutierrez.

This afternoon in Mechelen we have seen a time trial under a grey (but dry) sky with a good but not very high temperature and, since Gutierrez and some other riders in the top 10 are good time trial riders, this promissed to be a race for seconds to win the Eneco Tour. Arnaud Coyot (Caisse d'Epargne) told me that Gutierrez really wanted to win the Eneco Tour for the second time, but that at least 10 to 15 riders were still able to go for the final win ...

Exciting till the end since Gutierrez had to finish before all other riders in the top 10 if possible and André Greipel, who started last, had to finish with an 11 second delay on him! That's finally what happened since, even though Gutierrez left the stage victory to the Latvian Raivis Belohvoscicks he won 25 seconds on the German André Greipel and thus won the Eneco Tour 2008 14 seconds ahead of the rider who started in the white jersey today.

Just before the 800 last meters of his time trial, José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) lost his seat and thus finished his time trial standing on his pedals. Sebastien Rosseler (QuickStep) and Michael Rogers (Team Columbia) finished this time trial in the same second as Gutierrez and thus took the second and third place in this Eneco Tour, respectively 4 and 7 seconds behind the Spaniard.

The winner of the time trial of the Eneco Tour 2008 : Raivis Belohvoscicks (Scott American Beef)


The Eneco Tour 2008 king of the mountains (well, whatever you call those hills!): Floris Goesinnen (Skil Shimano)


The winner of the ranking by points in the Eneco Tour 2008 : Jurgen Roelandts, Belgian champion

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