Arnaud Demare (FDJ.fr) won the first stage of the Tour de l’Eurometropole from a bunch sprint. Adrien Petit (Cofidis) was 2nd and Jens Keukeleire (Orica GreenEdge) rounded out the podium. Andreas Stauff was the highest placed rider from Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung in 28th position.
The early racing saw our Martin Wesemann being very aggressive and eventually forming part of the first break of the day. The peloton were not happy with the composition of the move though and reeled them in rather quickly. Eventually 5 riders went clear. With so many top sprinters present at the race, most teams wanted to see a sprint finish.
As the break was kept in check by a number of teams, Team MTN-Qhubeka suffered some misfortune when Ignatas Konovalovas and Gerald Ciolek went down quite heavily in a crash just as the chase began. Thankfully both riders could get up to finish but were not able to play a role in the mass bunch sprint.
The 2nd stage is expected to be another bunch sprint.
Sports Director – Jens Zemke
We had Martin Wesemann in the early break but it only lasted for 20km’s before they got caught again. Another 5 escaped around the 50km marker but they were later reeled in with 20km to go. The race was wide open leading up to the finish with lots of riders trying to attack. FDJ and Giant worked hard at the front to set up their sprinters. Unfortunatly Gerald and Ignas crashed so were out of it but tomorrow is another opportunity.
Full team results can be viewed here: Results
Tour de l’Eurometropole (Belgium) – (2-5 Oct/UCI 2.1) Team Lineup
Gerald Ciolek (GER)
Jaco Venter (RSA)
Martin Wesemann (RSA)
Johann van Zyl (RSA)
Nicolas Dougall (RSA)
Ignatas Konovalovas (LTU)
Linus Gerdemann (GER)
Andy Stauff (GER)
Stage Profiles Overview
Stage 1 – 2 October (191km)
Stage 2 – 3 October (171km)
Stage 3 – 4 October (174km)
Stage 4 – 5 October (155km)
