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Tour of Belgium - 2.1
Belgium, May 25-29, 2005
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Stage 3a - May 27: Knokke-Heist - Buggenhout, 108km
Van Loocke surprises Boonen
By Gabriella Ekström
24 year-old Landbouwkrediet neo-pro Jurgen Van Loocke surprised tour leader and dual stage winner Tom Boonen (Quick.Step) to win the morning's 108 km stage between Knokke-Heist and Buggenhout, which finished in a bunch sprint. Van Loocke, who used to be led out by Boonen when they raced together in the U23 ranks, came off the Quick.Step rider's wheel and managed to keep his nose in front until the finish. Boonen still finished second, and kept the black leader's jersey going into this afternoon's time trial.
"You can't have any doubts," said Van Loocke to Sporza after the finish. "The same riders can't win all the time, can they? If I waited until 100 metres from the finish, then I would never get around Boonen. So I led out myself."
Van Loocke certainly doesn't consider himself in the same league as Boonen. "Tom is much better on nearly all fronts. But the sprint is also my domain."
"Jurgen deserved to win a race sometime," commented Boonen, who added that he did have technical problems. "My derailleur slipped twice, and each time that is one second that I couldn't ride at full power. But to win this sprint, who have to be able to ride a bike well.
How it unfolded
Early in the morning in the very warm stage between Knooke-Heist and Buggenhout, neither Quick.Step nor Chocolade Jacques showed any willingness to control the race, but rather chose to put their own riders in the numerous breakaways.
James Vanlandschoot (Landbouwkrediet) and Paul Van Schalen (AXA) were the first to be allowed a gap and they lasted until the bonus sprint after 16 kilometres, and it was won by Vanlandschoot. Back in the peloton Nico Eeckhout seemingly took the last bonus second offered and closed in even more on the five second lead Boonen had before the stage.
Geert Omloop (MrBookmaker), Geert Verheyen (Landbouwkrediet) and yet again Paul Van Schalen made a new attempt with 70 kilometres to go, but were quickly brought back and released by Guido Trenti (QuickStep), Nico Mattan (Davitamon-Lotto), Kevin Van Der Slagmolen (Bodysol) and Arthur Farenhout (AXA). They were countered by Jan Kuyckx (Davitamon-Lotto) and Christoph Roodhooft (MrBookmaker), and later by Nico Mattan, Wouter Van Mechelen (Chocolade Jacques), Jurgen Van De Walle (Landbouwkrediet) and Niki Terpstra (AXA) but a break didn't last until Rudi Kemna (Shimano), James Vanlandschoot and Igor Abakoumov (Jartazi) attacked with 38 kilometres to go, just in time for the international broadcast.
They were the only riders who were allowed to build up something that resembled a gap, and Quick.Step sat back and watched teams like LPR, AXA and Bodysol take over the work at the front. The peloton kept the three front riders at under a minute until only ten kilometres remained. Quick.Step waited until they were back in the bunch before they regained their control over the peloton.
In the sprint, Boonen's team used yesterday's tactics and looked to be successful when Landbouwkrediet rider Jurgen Van Loocke came out from the position behind Boonen. Van Loocke started the sprint out and eased past Boonen, although Trenti did his best to position himself where Van Loocke was heading. But Van Loocke was too fast, and scored an excellent win.
Tom Boonen finished second and scored four seconds, compared to Nico Eeckhout who was outside of the bonus seconds given away at the finish. Tom Boonen will start the afternoon time trial with an eight second lead ahead of Nico Eeckhout.
Results
1 Jurgen Van Loocke (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 2.25.10 2 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep 3 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team LPR 4 Stefan Van Dijck (Ned) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 5 Crescenzo D’Amore (Ita) 6 Nico Eeckhout (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 7 Linas Balciunas (Ltu) Agritubel 8 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 9 Guido Trenti (USA) Quickstep 10 Christoph Roodhooft (Bel) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 11 Maxim Rudenko (Ukr) Jartazi Granville Team 12 Alain Van Katwijk (Ned) Shimano - Memory Corp 13 Wouter Van Mechelen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 14 Julien Smink (Ned) Shimano - Memory Corp 15 Robby Meul (Bel) Jartazi Granville Team 16 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil 17 Roman Luhovyy (Ukr) R.A.G.T Semences 18 Marco Bos (Ned) Shimano - Memory Corp 19 Denis Bertolini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil 20 Saulius Ruskys (Ltu) Agritubel 21 Bert Roesems (Bel) Davitamon - Lotto 22 Thomas Onghena (Bel) Profel Cycling Team 23 Paul Van Schalen (Ned) AXA 24 Kevin Ista (Bel) R.A.G.T Semences 25 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Rabobank 26 Christophe Agnolutto (Fra) Agritubel 27 Michael Simms (Aus) Profel Cycling Team 28 Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukr) Team LPR 29 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Davitamon - Lotto 30 Nick Ingels (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 31 Sjef De Wilde (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 32 Matthé Pronk (Ned) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 33 Steven Caethoven (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 34 Gorik Gardeyn (Bel) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 35 Kevin Hulsmans (Bel) Quickstep 36 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 37 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Shimano - Memory Corp 38 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) Jartazi Granville Team 39 Dmitri Konychev (Rus) Team LPR 40 Tom Stubbe (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 41 Lénaïc Olivier (Fra) Agritubel 42 Frederik Willems (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 43 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Davitamon - Lotto 44 Erwin Thijs (Bel) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 45 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 46 Nico Mattan (Bel) Davitamon - Lotto 47 Pieter Mertens (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 48 Kevin Van Impe (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 49 José Antonio Pecharroman Fabian (Spa) Quickstep 50 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Rabobank 51 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) Quickstep 52 Jurgen Vandewalle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 53 David Boucher (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 54 Johan Verstrepen (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 55 Gilles Canouet (Fra) Agritubel 56 Geert Verheyen (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 57 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 58 Steven De Neef (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 59 Guillaume Auger (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 60 Ronald Mutsaars (Ned) Rabobank 61 Andries Verspeeten (Bel) Profel Cycling Team 62 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Davitamon - Lotto 63 Kevin Van Der Slagmolen (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 64 Jan Boven (Ned) Rabobank 65 Daniele Contrini (Ita) Team LPR 66 Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Davitamon - Lotto 67 Cédric Coutouly (Fra) Agritubel 68 Vytautas Kaupas (Ltu) Jartazi Granville Team 0.17 69 Raimondas Vilcinskas (Ltu) Jartazi Granville Team 70 John Gadret (Fra) Jartazi Granville Team 71 Ivan Fanelli (Ita) Team LPR 72 Jarno Van Mingeroet (Bel) Profel Cycling Team 0.23 73 Steven De Champs (Bel) Profel Cycling Team 0.30 74 Matti Helminen (Fin) Profel Cycling Team 75 Kristof De Zutter (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 76 Xavier Hérinne (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 77 Peter Van Petegem (Bel) Davitamon - Lotto 78 Jef Peeters (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 79 Peter Van Agtmaal (Ned) AXA 80 Nico Sijmens (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 81 Andrea Rossi (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil 82 Bert De Waele (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 83 Geert Omloop (Bel) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 0.34 84 Bart Vanheule (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 0.36 85 Sébastien Minard (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 86 Florent Brard (Fra) Agritubel 87 Maarten Den Bakker (Ned) Rabobank 88 Danny Stam (Ned) AXA 89 Niels Scheuneman (Ned) Rabobank 90 Peter Ronsse (Bel) Jartazi Granville Team 0.53 91 Servais Knaven (Ned) Quickstep 0.59 92 Dimitri De Fauw (Bel) Quickstep 93 Claudio Astolfi (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil 1.04 94 Ondrej Sosenka (Cze) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil 95 Leonardo Moser (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Adria Mobil 96 Jos Lucassen (Ned) AXA 97 Marc Wauters (Bel) Rabobank 98 David Verheyen (Bel) Profel Cycling Team 99 Emilien Benoit Bergès (Fra) R.A.G.T Semences 100 Jorn Van Der Veken (Bel) Profel Cycling Team 101 Dominique Cornu (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen 102 Igor Abakoumov (Bel) Jartazi Granville Team 103 Arthur Farenhout (Ned) AXA 1.10 104 Robert Slippens (Ned) AXA 1.25 105 Niki Terpstra (Ned) AXA 1.45 106 Rudi Kemna (Ned) Shimano - Memory Corp 107 Alessandro Maserati (Ita) Team LPR 2.32 DNS Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Quickstep General classification after stage 3a 1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep 9.41.54 2 Nico Eeckhout (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - T Interim 0.08 3 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Team LPR 0.16 4 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Davitamon - Lotto 0.17 5 Mikhaylo Khalilov (Ukr) Team LPR 0.18 6 David Boucher (Fra) MrBookmaker.com - SportsTech 7 Lénaïc Olivier (Fra) Agritubel 0.20 8 Steven De Neef (Bel) Bodysol- Win for Life - Jong Vlaanderen
