2012 ENECO Tour Stage 5; 184,6 KM

[ElChingon]

Stage 5 is upon us, another flat stage with some nice bridge crossings with hopefully some nice cross winds to break things up a bit if not catch some riders by surprise.

Those of you who are not into it are welcome to start another thread on your feeling for the day, but that is not what this thread is for.

GC is tight top 10 placings are separated by less than 10 seconds, no napping on this stage.

 

[Kwibus]

Unfortunately they cross the Westerschelde through a tunnel. No bridge there.

Wouldn't matter anyways with loooong way to the finish after they pass the Westerschelde.
bunchsprint

 

[Pricey_sky]

Nice to see Eurosport broadcasting this live, will be flicking between this and olympics on the Beeb.

 

[LaFleur]

20km to go and this is the 4th post, seems like an interesting stage.

 

[roundabout]

20km to go and this is the 4th post, seems like an interesting stage.

I was hoping you would write something about the wind and splits in the group.

5 posts now.

 

[Ferminal]

Why don't they have two stages on some days?

Blah, WT not allowed are they?

 

[Leonardus]

Snoozefest again, literally. After watching for 15 min I just fell asleep, woke up 5 min ago and nothing has happened apparently.

 

[Ferminal]

Steegmans wins a sprint, does that make him 2nd overall (Kruopis got 2nd though)?

 

[Samson]

Thank god we have time trial tomorrow.

 

[LaFleur]

Thank god we have time trial tomorrow.

Since you cannot be 100% sure about the timings before the official results, I wouldn't be so hopeful.

 

[LaFleur]

Oh dear.

10 chars

 

[Ferminal]

I thought it was Nizzolo, lol.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Shambolic run-in

 

[RedheadDane]

Must've been some interesting behind-the-scenes-scenes!

Person A: Roelandt... I'm sorry to tell you but; you didn't win!
Person B: Nizzolo! Wait! You won!


And I feel really sorry for Bos...

 

[Miburo]

Commentators were saying TT is 14 km but it's 17,4 km right?

Weird.

And yeah boring flat stage...

 

[Arnout]

This is such a fail race. I know the countries are flat and all that, but the organizers don't want to make it interesting for some reason. Oh well, I'll just ignore this race.

 

[El Pistolero]

This is such a fail race. I know the countries are flat and all that, but the organizers don't want to make it interesting for some reason. Oh well, I'll just ignore this race.

The only good thing coming from this race is we might finally see a Belgian/Dutch guy winning this race lol.

Surprises me every time how they keep insisting on time trials and flat stages though. It's not like Belgium/Dutchieland have good time trial specialists.

 

[Arnout]

Well I don't care about that, I'm just interested in a good race, but with this name and this route, I cannot be bothered.

 

[El Pistolero]

Well I don't care about that, I'm just interested in a good race, but with this name and this route, I cannot be bothered.

Yup, I'm only bothered with Sunday. This race has much potential. After all, most of the classics take place in Belgium and they're usually interesting races. And this race could easily go to Nord pas de Calais. It's practically Flanders.

 

[ElChingon]

Personal issues/feelings asside:

Standings post Stage 4:

Eneco jersey
1 Tom Boonen OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP 19:36:26
2 Jens Keukeleire ORICA-GREENEDGE 0:00:01
3 Sylvain Chavanel OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP 0:00:02
4 Niki Terpstra OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP
5 Alexander Kristoff KATUSHA TEAM 0:00:03
6 Lars Boom RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM 0:00:04
7 Gert Steegmans OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP
8 Giacomo Nizzolo RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 0:00:05
9 Jens Mouris ORICA-GREENEDGE
10 Sebastian Langeveld ORICA-GREENEDGE 0:00:06

Lotto points classification
1 Giacomo Nizzolo RADIOSHACK-NISSAN 62
2 Marcel Kittel ARGOS-SHIMANO 60
3 Heinrich Haussler GARMIN-BARRACUDA 56
4 Jurgen Roelandts LOTTO BELISOL TEAM 50
5 Michael Van Staeyen TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN - MERCATOR 47
6 Arnaud Demare FDJ-BIG MAT 44
7 Alexander Kristoff KATUSHA TEAM 43
8 Theo Bos RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM 41
9 Tom Boonen OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP 41
10 Aidis Kruopis ORICA-GREENEDGE 39

Primus jersey
1 Laurens De Vreese TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN - MERCATOR 58
2 Gert Dockx LOTTO BELISOL TEAM 25
3 Sjef De Wilde ACCENT JOBS - WILLEMS VERANDA'S 22
4 Boris Shpilevsky AG2R LA MONDIALE 21
5 James Vanlandschoot ACCENT JOBS - WILLEMS VERANDA'S 20
6 Matteo Bono LAMPRE - ISD 18
7 Dmitriy Muravyev ASTANA PRO TEAM 18
8 Pablo Urtasun Perez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 17
9 Adrian Saez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 17
10 Alex Dowsett SKY PROCYCLING 16

Contador is 33 seconds behind Boonen, can he reel Boonen's lead time? Or is there another good TT rider that can trump them all?

Next stage!

 

[Wilba60]

The only good thing coming from this race is we might finally see a Belgian/Dutch guy winning this race lol.

Surprises me every time how they keep insisting on time trials and flat stages though. It's not like Belgium/Dutchieland have good time trial specialists.

GreenEdge may not support that theory and put up an Australian or Canadian win with Durbridge and Tuft not too far from the leader. Tuft has been doing plenty of racing in Canada with a TT success but not sure what Durbridge has been doing for the last 6 weeks, so it will be interesting to see if he has kept his speed. There is a chance of them supporting your Belgian/Dutch theory though with Mouris, Keukeleire and Langeveld all in the mix....not sure they can go as quick as Turbo and Tuft.