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Tour of Britain - 2.1Great Britain, August 29-September 3, 2006Main Page Results Overall standings Stage Details Previous Stage Stage 6 - September 3: Greenwich to The Mall, 82kmBoonen triumphs in London finaleIf the queen was watching from her balcony at Buckingham Palace on Sunday afternoon she would had seen Tom Boonen win the prestigious last stage in the Tour of Britain and Martin Pedersen (CSC) crowned the overall victor and rightful owner of the yellow jersey. The weather was an almost perfect at 23c and sunny but the blustery winds were causing havoc with the Italian style aluminium chairs that lined many of the cafes by the river Thames. The race provided a colourful spectacle as it left Greenwich Park taking the riders north of the Thames via Tower Bridge and passing the Tower of London. LLjio Keisse (Chocolade Jacques-Topsport) won the only sprint of the day just beyond Tower Bridge as he escaped the clutches of the peloton with Kristian House (Recycling.co.uk), Maarten Tjallingii (Skil Shimano) and Franceso Chicchi (QuickStep-Innergetic). But they were quickly reabsorbed into the main field after they divided the sprint points between them. They took in a small loop along the Embankment by the river Thames to run down to the Houses of Parliament before turning back for a view of the London Eye and on to the leafy suburbs of Hampstead Heath. Britain's Ben Greenwood again proved his climbing prowess when took the only KOM of the day at the top of the Highgate's West Hill before the peloton descended back into town through Regents Park, Baker Street, Oxford Street and Hyde Park before they hit The Mall circuit for the first time. The crowds had turned out to see their cycling heroes in England's capital city. They were altogether on the St James Park circuit down the Mall for the first of 20 passes of the Palace. During the early laps a motorcycle race marshal and a police motorcyclist collided with one bike skidding into the barriers and injuring four spectators. Five people were taken to hospital with their injuries which we understand are not thought to be life-threatening. Back in the race and as the laps left counted down the crowd were treated to a breakaway when Rob Sharman (Recycling.co.uk) went clear with James Meadley (South Australia.com - AIS) and Casper Jorgensen (Denmark). The prime at The Mall was uncontested as the trio tried to hold their advantage. Their lead hovered at around 30 seconds but it came down after a number of laps and they were eventually caught. Sharman won the combativity award for his efforts. There was a tangle of bikes with only a few laps left but thankfully everyone remounted and there were no injuries but the race was over for some. The young GB team took up the challenge with two laps to go and three riders hit the front taking on the might of CSC and T-Mobile for their team leader and sprinter Roger Hammond. As the bell sounded for the last lap the bumping and jostling for position had already begun. Boonen powered down the finishing straight and took the victory sprint from Roger Hammond (GB) and Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile) who ensured he won the points competition with that effort. Andy Schleck (CSC) won the KOM competition and Johan Van Summeren (Davitamon-Lotto) was king of the sprints. Cavendish was able to confirm that he has already signed a two year contract with T-Mobile. Boonen thought riding through London was fantastic. "It was something else," he said: "I enjoyed it. It was a good route for a change. It was a good race today." The current world road race spoke a little about the traffic and safety issues encountered during the six day tour. "It's not easy to have something perfect. We as riders know it and organisers know it. There were a few problems this week but sh*t happens." A BBC radio journalist asked if he thought that the problems with the race were not serious then? "It was pretty serious," he answered and then made a more general statement about race safety: "The problem is it only gets serious when someone gets injured and all the situations were there to get injured. We were really lucky that nothing happened. They have promised us to change it but they had already promised us three years ago." "The problem is that it is very difficult to change anything because it's a mental thing. I know the organisation probably does everything possible to guarantee the safety of the riders but they can't cope with every rider who gets dropped. When I crashed (in the stage to Liverpool) I was behind and taking it easy sitting in the traffic. They almost ran me over five times. When Pozzato won the stage he was thirty seconds in front and there were two or three cars riding between him and the chasers. Stuff like that shouldn't be possible." He was then asked if he was looking forward to returning to England for the Tour de France next year: "I don't look forward to the Tour," he laughed: "It was a nice stage today and it's nice to see London by bike and know that it's possible to got to one of the biggest cities in the world, jam all the traffic and just have a bike race. It was fun. Today we didn't make any mistakes in the sprint and I won." Martin Pederson was all smiles when he went to the press conference after the race: "I only can here (to Britain) to win a stage. Today is probably the best ever day on a bike for me. It was special for me to see all the spectators. It's my first time in London and it was great to go over Tower Bridge." "The race organisation is great but it's hard to control the traffic sometimes, continued the Danish professional: "It's my first year with CSC and the first stage victory was my first win. We had a very strong team and I think everyone could have won the Tour. I think the team was so strong that a lot of the teams were afraid to attack." CSC director sportif Bjarne Riis was on the Tour for the last two stages and Pedersen was pleased he was there to see the victory: "For sure," he said: "It's nice for the team to do well in Britain. It was good for Bjarne to see us ride so well." "If I get selected for the world championships it will be the next goal for me. It would be nice to come back to London for the Tour de France next year but it's hard to get on the team."
PhotographyFor a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here Images by Gerry McManus/www.gerrymcmanus.co.uk
Images by Peter Bentley
Images by Ben Atkins/Cylingnews.com
Images by Richard O'Brien
Results1 Tom Boonen (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 2.00.41 (40.77 km/h) 2 Roger Hammond (GBr) Great Britain 3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile 4 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 5 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Davitamon Lotto 6 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano 7 Russell Downing (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 8 Luke Roberts (Aus) CSC 9 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 10 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 11 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 12 Michael Morkov (Den) Denmark 13 Hugo Sabido (Por) Barloworld 14 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Unibet.com 15 Martin Pedersen (Den) CSC 16 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Unibet.com 17 Matteo Priamo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 18 Piet Rooijakkers (Ned) Skil-Shimano 19 Karsten Kroon (Ned) CSC 20 Dean Downing (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 21 Axel Merckx (Bel) Phonak iShares 22 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile 23 Mirko Allegrini (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 24 Edward Clancy (GBr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 25 Ben Greenwood (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 26 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Phonak iShares 27 Christian Vandevelde (USA) CSC 28 Erwin Thijs (Bel) Unibet.com 29 Andy Schleck (Lux) CSC 30 Cameron Jennings (Aus) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 31 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 32 Nick Nuyens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 33 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 34 Bert Roesems (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 35 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 36 James Meadley (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 37 Ryan Cox (RSA) Barloworld 38 Kristan House (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 39 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) T-Mobile 40 Koen Barbe (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 41 Frederik Willems (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 42 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) QuickStep-Innergetic 43 Jonathon Clarke (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 44 Shaun Higgerson (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 45 Nico Mattan (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 46 Andy Cappelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 47 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 48 Evan Oliphant (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 49 Casper Jorgensen (Den) Denmark 50 Tom Barras (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 51 Frederik Veuchulen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 52 Kenny Lisabeth (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 53 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Great Britain 54 Matthias Kessler (Ger) T-Mobile 55 Andrew Tennant (GBr) Great Britain 56 Simon Clarke (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 57 Enrico Degano (Ita) Barloworld 58 Mathew Lloyd (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 59 Mads Christensen (Den) Barloworld 60 Rob Partridge (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 61 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Unibet.com 62 Ross Sander (GBr) Great Britain 62 Ian Stannard (GBr) Great Britain 62 Ben Swift (GBr) Great Britain 62 Nick Gates (Aus) Davitamon Lotto 62 Christopher Newton (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 62 Robin Sharman (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 62 Patrick McCarty (USA) Phonak iShares 62 Alex Rasmussen (Den) Denmark 62 Andre Steensen (Den) Denmark 62 Rene Weissinger (Ger) Skil-Shimano 72 Jakob Piil (Den) CSC 72 Paul Manning (GBr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 74 Alex Coutts (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 2.44 DNS Igor Astarloa (Spa) Barloworld Points 1 Tom Boonen (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 15 pts 2 Roger Hammond (GBr) Great Britain 14 3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile 13 4 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 12 5 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Davitamon Lotto 11 6 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano 10 7 Russell Downing (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 9 8 Luke Roberts (Aus) CSC 8 9 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 7 10 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 6 11 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 5 12 Michael Morkov (Den) Denmark 4 13 Hugo Sabido (Por) Barloworld 3 14 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Unibet.com 2 15 Martin Pedersen (Den) CSC 1 Mountains Highgate Hill - Cat. 3 1 Ben Greenwood (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 4 pts 2 Koen Barbe (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 3 3 Jakob Piil (Den) CSC 2 4 Luke Roberts (Aus) CSC 1 Sprints Tower Bridge 1 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 5 pts 2 Kristan House (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 3 3 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 2 4 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 1 Sprint 2 1 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 5 pts 2 Kristan House (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 3 3 Nick Nuyens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 2 4 Frederik Willems (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 1 Sprint 3 1 James Meadley (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 5 pts 2 Casper Jorgensen (Den) Denmark 3 3 Robin Sharman (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 2 4 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) T-Mobile 1 Most combative 1 Robin Sharman (GBr) Recycling.co.uk Teams 1 Skil-Shimano 6.02.03 2 QuickStep-Innergetic 3 CSC 4 Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 5 DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 6 Unibet.com 7 T-Mobile 8 Davitamon Lotto 9 Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 10 Barloworld 11 Phonak iShares 12 Great Britain 13 Recycling.co.uk 14 Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 15 Denmark 16 South Australia.com-AIS Final General classification 1 Martin Pedersen (Den) CSC 21.51.24 2 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Unibet.com 0.51 3 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 2.11 4 Nick Nuyens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 2.46 5 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile 6 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 3.06 7 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Phonak iShares 3.07 8 Andy Schleck (Lux) CSC 3.14 9 Russell Downing (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 3.16 10 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 3.18 11 Piet Rooijakkers (Ned) Skil-Shimano 3.25 12 Mirko Allegrini (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 3.27 13 Hugo Sabido (Por) Barloworld 3.34 14 Andy Cappelle (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 3.35 15 Erwin Thijs (Bel) Unibet.com 16 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Unibet.com 3.42 17 Kristan House (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 3.44 18 Karsten Kroon (Ned) CSC 3.45 19 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) T-Mobile 3.55 20 Roger Hammond (GBr) Great Britain 4.07 21 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 4.20 22 Luke Roberts (Aus) CSC 4.21 23 Michael Morkov (Den) Denmark 4.39 24 Ian Stannard (GBr) Great Britain 5.35 25 Ryan Cox (RSA) Barloworld 8.13 26 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile 16.04 27 Jakob Piil (Den) CSC 16.19 28 Simon Clarke (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 18.28 29 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano 21.31 30 Kenny Lisabeth (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 21.43 31 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 22.06 32 Tom Boonen (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 22.36 33 Andrew Tennant (GBr) Great Britain 23.09 34 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Davitamon Lotto 26.18 35 Frederik Willems (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 26.30 36 Cameron Jennings (Aus) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 26.35 37 Paul Manning (GBr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 26.58 38 Rob Partridge (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 27.13 39 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 27.17 40 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Great Britain 27.18 41 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) QuickStep-Innergetic 30.41 42 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 31.20 43 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Unibet.com 31.31 44 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 31.32 45 Enrico Degano (Ita) Barloworld 31.42 46 Dean Downing (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 31.44 47 Nico Mattan (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 31.47 48 Andre Steensen (Den) Denmark 31.49 49 Christian Vandevelde (USA) CSC 31.56 50 Alex Rasmussen (Den) Denmark 31.57 51 Koen Barbe (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 52 Evan Oliphant (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 31.59 53 James Meadley (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 32.04 54 Casper Jorgensen (Den) Denmark 55 Frederik Veuchulen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 32.07 56 Ben Greenwood (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 57 Axel Merckx (Bel) Phonak iShares 58 Mads Christensen (Den) Barloworld 59 Mathew Lloyd (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 60 Bert Roesems (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 32.17 61 Robin Sharman (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 32.26 62 Nick Gates (Aus) Davitamon Lotto 32.27 63 Patrick McCarty (USA) Phonak iShares 64 Matthias Kessler (Ger) T-Mobile 65 Shaun Higgerson (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 32.44 66 Ben Swift (GBr) Great Britain 33.22 67 Tom Barras (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 33.23 68 Matteo Priamo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 33.38 69 Edward Clancy (GBr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 33.40 70 Jonathon Clarke (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 34.49 71 Alex Coutts (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 34.51 72 Ross Sander (GBr) Great Britain 35.10 73 Christopher Newton (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 37.41 74 Rene Weissinger (Ger) Skil-Shimano 38.37 Points classification 1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile 62 pts 2 Russell Downing (GBr) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 56 3 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 44 4 Roger Hammond (GBr) Great Britain 38 5 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano 37 6 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 35 7 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 34 8 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 33 9 Martin Pedersen (Den) CSC 28 10 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 18 Mountains classification 1 Andy Schleck (Lux) CSC 50 pts 2 Ben Greenwood (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 35 3 Bert Roesems (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 31 4 Martin Pedersen (Den) CSC 25 5 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 23 6 Luke Roberts (Aus) CSC 12 7 Jakob Piil (Den) CSC 12 8 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Unibet.com 10 9 James Vanlandschoot (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 8 10 Christian Vandevelde (USA) CSC 8 11 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 7 12 Nick Nuyens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 6 13 Karsten Kroon (Ned) CSC 6 14 Hugo Sabido (Por) Barloworld 5 15 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) QuickStep-Innergetic 4 16 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Unibet.com 4 17 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 4 Sprints classification 1 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 30 pts 2 Iljo Keisse (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 23 3 Martin Pedersen (Den) CSC 18 4 Nick Nuyens (Bel) QuickStep-Innergetic 9 5 Frederik Willems (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 8 6 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Unibet.com 8 7 Luke Roberts (Aus) CSC 7 8 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile 6 9 Piet Rooijakkers (Ned) Skil-Shimano 6 10 Kristan House (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 6 11 Bert Roesems (Bel) Davitamon Lotto 6 12 James Meadley (Aus) South Australia.com-AIS 5 13 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 4 14 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 4 15 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) QuickStep-Innergetic 3 16 Mirko Allegrini (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 3 17 Rob Partridge (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 3 18 Casper Jorgensen (Den) Denmark 3 19 Paul Manning (GBr) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 3 20 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) QuickStep-Innergetic 3 21 Hugo Sabido (Por) Barloworld 2 22 Cameron Jennings (Aus) DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 2 23 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Unibet.com 2 24 Robin Sharman (GBr) Recycling.co.uk 2 25 Karsten Kroon (Ned) CSC 2 26 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) T-Mobile 1 27 Christian Vandevelde (USA) CSC 1 Teams classification 1 CSC 65.41.15 2 Unibet.com 1.00 3 QuickStep-Innergetic 14.49 4 T-Mobile 16.07 5 Great Britain 19.04 6 Skil-Shimano 21.23 7 Landbouwkrediet-Colnago 27.35 8 Barloworld 36.27 9 Phonak iShares 36.44 10 Chocolade Jacques-Topsport 44.37 11 DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed 54.37 12 Recycling.co.uk 55.59 13 Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 59.57 14 Denmark 1.00.57 15 South Australia.com-AIS 1.13.03 16 Davitamon Lotto 1.14.36 |
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