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Tour of Belgium - 2.2
Belgium, May 19-23, 2004
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Stage 5 - May 23: Ans-Eupen km, 224 km
Chavanel hangs on...just
By Jeff Jones
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In a thrilling final stage of the Tour of Belgium, Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel hung onto the black leader's jersey to win by 3 seconds over Bart Voskamp (Chocolade Jacques). The 224 km stage finished in Eupen with Bjorn Leukemans (MrBookmaker-Palmans) taking the win, the only survivor of a three man breakaway. Voskamp finished 5th, two places ahead of Chavanel, but couldn't claim the necessary bonus seconds to take away the lead.
Chavanel, who won the Four Days of Dunkirk earlier this month, was under pressure in the final 80 kilometres of the stage, with his small team having to fend off the attacks of Gianluca Bortolami, Victor Hugo Peña and finally Rik Verbrugghe, who were all close to him on GC. But thanks to the help of the strong Chocolade Jacques team, Verbrugghe was neutralised with 250m to go and only Leukemans stayed away from the peloton.
"It was really tough, certainly because I had just five teammates," said Chavanel. "I want to really thank them for their fantastic work. I was but once nervous. At the moment that there was a leading group of 22. In the finale, Verbrugghe rode in the virtual black jersey, but I saw that the sprinters teams began to work and that we would win back the time. I focused mainly on the wheel of Bart Voskamp. He was the biggest danger."
"This victory demonstrates my good form. I'll start the Tour with various ambitions. I'm aiming for a stage win and for the rest I'll be at the service of Beloki."
How it unfolded
The final stage was run between Ans (the finish of L-B-L and also the 2003 Tour of Belgium) and Eupen, over a hilly route in the southeastern part of Belgium. The weather was sunny but quite cold and windy, and of the 99 starters, there were only 39 finishers.
After 6 km, Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis) won the first sprint and did more than enough to secure his lead in that classification. A few kilometres later, points jersey wearer Tom Boonen (Quick.Step-Davitamon) went on the attack and was joined by Wouter Van Mechelen (Vlaanderen), Nico Eeckhout (Lotto-Domo), Guennadi Mikhailov (USPS-Berry Floor), Andy Cappelle (Chocolade Jacques), Erki Pütsep (Ag2r), Sébastien Rosseler (Relax Bodysol) and climber's jersey wearer Alain Van Katwijk (BankGiroLoterij).
Cappelle was the best placed rider in the break at only 45 seconds from Chavanel, but there was no panic in the peloton and the leaders quickly gained over three minutes by the first of 13 climbs, the Côte de Fraiture (km 50). Van Katwijk took the points on the climb and continued to increase his lead in that classification. On the Côte de Chambralles a few kilometres later, Wouter Van Mechelen had to drop off the leading group, reducing it to seven men.
Van Mechelen was caught and dropped by the peloton on La Redoute (climb 4) and his day was quickly finished. Similarly Pütsep and Eeckhout were in trouble in the break on this steep climb, and although Eeckhout managed to claw his way back, he was ultimately dropped. That left five leaders: Boonen, Van Katwijk, Rosseler, Mikhailov, and Cappelle, with the peloton at 2'40 with 110 km to go.
Van Katwijk picked up more points on the subsequent climbs, and merely had to finish the stage to win the climber's jersey. He did that, although he ultimately finished third last at 10 minutes down. Cappelle's stay in the breakaway ended on the Côte Thier de Coo (95 km to go) when he punctured. He didn't have enough gas to get back to the leaders and returned to the peloton. On the next climb, the Côte de Stockeu, Rosseler attacked, which had the effect of reducing the break to three riders once he was re-caught by Boonen and Mikhailov, with Van Katwijk being dropped.
The peloton had thinned down to around 50 riders at this point with 90 km to go, and the attacks started happening to try and put Chavanel under pressure. Cofidis' Matt White was riding very strongly, and continually accelerated away from the peloton to try and break things up. With 82 km to go, the leading trio had just 16 seconds, but this increased to 40 seconds as the peloton stopped its chase.
Zbigniew Piatek (Chocolade Jacques) bridged across to the leaders with 77 km to go, with Matt White and Marco Pinotti setting off next and also catching the lead group. This was a danger time for Chavanel as riders continually attacked the peloton, and the black jersey wearer was left behind when a large group riders formed in front with 60 km to go: Rik Verbrugghe and Serge Baguet (Lotto-Domo), Tom Boonen, Wilfried Cretskens (Quick.Step), Mikhail Timochine, Geert Van Bondt, Maxime Monfort (Landbouwkrediet), Bjorn Leukemans (MrBookmaker), Gianluca Bortolami (best placed on GC in fourth), Marco Pinotti, Matteo Carrara (Lampre), Johan Van Summeren, Sebastian Rosseler, Preben Van Hecke (Bodysol), Sven Renders and Geert Steurs (Jong Vlaanderen) and Matthew White (Cofidis) were all there,
Both Chavanel and Voskamp had missed the move, which quickly gained 40 seconds on the now very reduced peloton, where attacks still kept happening. But the cohesion was not there in the front group and on the Edelstrasse with 49 km to go, Johan Van Summeren (Bodysol) put in a huge attack, being joined by Leukemans, Verbrugghe and - for a short time only - the impressive Rosseler.
With 45 km left, Rosseler was gone and Van Summeren, Verbrugghe and Leukemans were slowly riding away from the next group, which was led by three Lampres trying to put Bortolami in a winning position. But Pinotti, Carrara and Bortolami were no match for the break, and their large group was eventually caught by the back half of the peloton with 34 km to go. The break had 47 seconds, which was more than enough to put Verbrugghe in the virtual leader's jersey as he only needed 18 seconds.
The break held steady as it hit the two 16.5 km finishing circuits, and it looked as though Verbrugghe might win the Tour of Belgium. Lampre had stopped working, leaving US Postal's Stijn Devolder and La Boulangère's Thomas Voeckler to try and bring the gap down, but they weren't succeeding. The three leaders crossed the finish line with 1 lap to go with the peloton at 49 seconds, but on the last lap things suddenly changed as Chocolade Jacques and Cofidis combined with Voeckler/Devolder to do some damage to the breakaway.
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With 9 km left it was 38 seconds, with 6 km it was 18 seconds and Verbrugghe's chances of overall victory were suddenly a lot smaller, even if he got the time bonus for winning the stage. Verbrugghe gave it everything on the final climb to the finish but could not stop the peloton from coming up behind. Van Summeren suffered the same fate but Leukemans managed to jump clear and hold off the bunch by a handful of seconds to take the stage win. Janek Tombak (Cofidis) finished second ahead of Mikhail Timochine (Landbouwkrediet), while Van Hecke, Voskamp, Van Heeswijk and Chavanel were behind in that order.
Once again, another nail biting finish in the Tour of Belgium, making up for yesterday's protest which may have some further reaching repercussions.
Photography
Images by AFP Photo
- Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches la Boulangere) crosses the line behind Bart Voskamp in the last stage of the Tour of Belgium
- The final podium (L to R): Bart Voskamp (2nd), Sylvain Chavanel (1st) and Max van Heeswijk (3rd)
- The jersey winners (L to R): Boonen (points), Chavanel (GC) and O'Grady (sprints)
Images by Mani Wollner/foto-grafik-satz.de
- The peloton working hard at the redoute
- Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches la Boulangère) always attentive
- The leading group at Stockeu
- Johan Van Summeren (Relax-Bodysol) attacks in the streets of Eupen
- Tom Boonen (Quickstep) in the second group
- Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto-Domo) leading the front group with 3local laps to go
- Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches la Boulangère) controlling in front of the second group
- Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto-Domo) powering with one lap to go
- Björn Leukemans (MrBookmaker.com-Palmans) crosses the line first
- Tom Boonen (Quickstep) looking exhausted
- Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches la Boulangère), winner of the Tour of Belgium
- Björn Leukemans (MrBookmaker.com-Palmans) on the podium
- Winners on the podium; Bart Voskamp (Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf) second, Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches la Boulangère) winner, Max Van Heeswijk (USPS), third
- Janek Tombak (Cofidis) points, Sylvain Chavanel (Brioches la Boulangère), overall, Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis), sprints on the podium
Results
1 Björn Leukemans (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 5.50.54 (38.3 km/h) 2 Janek Tombak (Est) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 0.04 3 Mikhail Timochine (Rus) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 0.06 4 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 0.07 5 Bart Voskamp (Ned) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 0.10 6 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 7 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 8 Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (Col) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 0.11 9 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 0.13 10 Roy Sentjens (Ned) Rabobank 0.14 11 Serge Baguet (Bel) Lotto-Domo 0.17 12 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 0.18 13 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 0.20 14 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Lampre 0.21 15 Geoffrey Demeyere (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 16 Gianluca Bortolami (Ita) Lampre 0.22 17 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 0.23 18 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 0.24 19 Kevin De Weert (Bel) Rabobank 0.26 20 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Lampre 0.29 21 Bert Hiemstra (Ned) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 0.33 22 Peter Farazijn (Bel) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 0.38 23 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 0.40 24 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Lampre 0.43 25 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 0.46 26 Axel Merckx (Bel) Lotto-Domo 0.51 27 Stijn Devolder (Bel) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 0.59 28 Matteo Carrara (Ita) Lampre 1.00 29 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 30 Matthew White (Aus) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 31 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 3.30 32 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 3.44 33 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 34 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukr) Lampre 35 Sven Renders (Bel) Jong Vlaanderen 2016 9.56 36 Stéphane Berges (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 10.08 37 Alain Van Katwijk (Ned) BankGiroLoterij 10.34 38 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 11.24 39 Benny De Schrooder (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 11.54 Final general classification 1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 19.19.47 2 Bart Voskamp (Ned) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 0.03 3 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 0.18 4 Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (Col) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 0.28 5 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 0.30 6 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 0.31 7 Gianluca Bortolami (Ita) Lampre 0.33 8 Roy Sentjens (Ned) Rabobank 0.46 9 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Lampre 0.47 10 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 0.51 11 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Lampre 0.55 12 Serge Baguet (Bel) Lotto-Domo 0.58 13 Janek Tombak (Est) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 14 Mikhail Timochine (Rus) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 1.01 15 Bert Hiemstra (Ned) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 1.05 16 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 1.07 17 Kevin De Weert (Bel) Rabobank 1.14 18 Geoffrey Demeyere (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 1.19 19 Stijn Devolder (Bel) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 1.32 20 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 21 Zbigniew Piatek (Pol) Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 1.41 22 Peter Farazijn (Bel) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 2.04 23 Matteo Carrara (Ita) Lampre 2.18 24 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Lampre 3.56 25 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 4.13 26 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 4.50 27 Axel Merckx (Bel) Lotto-Domo 5.22 28 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 6.13 29 Sven Renders (Bel) Jong Vlaanderen 2016 11.18 30 Benny De Schrooder (Bel) Vlaanderen-T Interim 13.09 31 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 19.33 32 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 19.36 33 Matthew White (Aus) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 21.08 34 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 23.35 35 Björn Leukemans (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 28.54 36 Stéphane Berges (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance 31.56 37 Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukr) Lampre 34.08 38 Alain Van Katwijk (Ned) BankGiroLoterij 34.55 39 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 36.19 Points classification 1 Janek Tombak (Est) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 58 pts 2 Mikhail Timochine (Rus) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 57 3 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor 48 4 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Lampre 47 5 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 45 6 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 45 7 Roy Sentjens (Ned) Rabobank 44 8 Björn Leukemans (Bel) MrBookmaker.com-Palmans 38 9 Gianluca Bortolami (Ita) Lampre 35 10 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 34 Sprints classification 1 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 32 pts 2 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 16 3 Mikhail Timochine (Rus) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 13 4 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Lampre 11 5 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Brioches la Boulangère 11 Climbs classification 1 Alain Van Katwijk (Ned) BankGiroLoterij 103 pts 2 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 62 3 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step-Davitamon 39 4 Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) Lotto-Domo 17 5 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Relax-Bodysol 10 Teams classification 1 Us Postal-Berry Floor 58.00.45 2 Lampre 0.45 3 Chocolade Jacques-Wincor Nixdorf 1.04 4 Lotto-Domo 1.40 5 Cofidis 3.14 6 Quick Step-Davitamon 5.34 7 Relax-Bodysol 11.07
