Today’s stage not only yielded the 21-year-old French rider a victory, but the overall leader’s jersey as well – placing him 3 seconds ahead of Mark Renshaw who unable to vie for the final sprint as a result of mechanical problems.
Similar to yesterday’s race, today’s stage saw an early breakaway group containing Gediminas Bagdonas, Mat Hayman, teammates Laurens De Vreese and Tim Declercq come to the fore. While the escape group succeed in creating a gap of more than 6 minutes, by the time they hit the penultimate climb of the Alsemberg at 20 kilometer mark, the gap had been reduced to just 2 minutes.
All working in earnest, teams Orica-GreenEdge, Belkin, Argos-Shimano, BMC, FDJ and Garmin-Sharp managed to chase down the trio in the final 2 kilometers.
Just as the break had been neutralized, race leader Mark Renshaw suffered an untimely mechanical problem and was unable to contest the finale.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYgBgBqMXJs
FRA 1 DEMARE, Arnaud (FDJ) 4:03:34 BEL 2 GILBERT, Philippe (BMC RACING) USA 3 FARRAR, Tyler (GARMIN SHARP) SLO 4 KUMP, Marko (SAXO-TINKOFF) ITA 5 PETACCHI, Alessandro (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) 6 DRUCKER Jean-Pierre (ACCENT JOBS – WANTY) ITA 7 POZZATO, Filippo (LAMPRE-MERIDA) USA 8 PHINNEY, Taylor (BMC RACING) NED 9 BOOM, Lars (BELKIN PRO CYCLING) FRA 10 LADAGNOUS, Matthieu (FDJ)
FRA 1 DEMARE, Arnaud (FDJ) 8:04:40 AUS 2 RENSHAW, Mark (BELKIN PRO CYCLING) + 3 BEL 3 GILBERT, Philippe (BMC RACING) + 4 USA 4 FARRAR, Tyler (GARMIN SHARP) + 6 NED 5 BOOM, Lars (BELKIN PRO CYCLING) + 7 USA 6 PHINNEY, Taylor (BMC RACING) + 8 GER 7 GREIPEL, André (LOTTO BELISOL) + 9 ITA 8 PETACCHI, Alessandro (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 10 FRA 9 LADAGNOUS, Matthieu (FDJ) 10 DRUCKER Jean-Pierre (ACCENT JOBS – WANTY)
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