CyclingQuotes.com Lopez wins Eneco queen stage, Dumoulin new leader

David Lopez Garcia (Sky) made up for Bradley Wiggins' loss in the time trial yesterday by winning the queen stage of this year's Eneco Tour as the only surviving member of the day's early breakaway. On a hard day in the Ardennes, race leader Lars Boom (Belkin) struggled and Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano) exploited the situation by riding to a strong 4th on the day and take over the leader's jersey with one hard stage still coming up.

Team Sky had put most of their eggs in the time trial basket at this year's Eneco Tour and so their hopes for the race appeared to be dashed when Bradley Wiggins failed to win yesterday. 24 hours later the team found itself on the top step of the podium with climber David Lopez who made up for the disappointment by taking a win in the queen stage.

The Spaniard made it into a strong 11-rider breakaway which contained GC contender Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) whose teammate Pim Ligthart did a fabulous job to help the group stay clear. The stage finished on the top of the famous Cote de La Redoute - known from Liege-Bastogne-Liege - and at the bootom of the steep slopes, only Lopez, Maciej Paterski (Cannondale) and Angel Madrazo (Movistar) remained in contention. Lopez emerged as the strongest in the sprint and took a huge win 3 years after his Vuelta stage win.

Behind, the GC battle was fierce as Lars Boom (Belkin) had lost contact with the main group rather early in the stage. With a close GC and very few riders with any domestiques left, the race ended as an attack festival with Tom Dumoulin as the big winner.

The young Dutchman made it into a chase group with Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) who were all in the top 10 on GC prior to the stage. Only Lopez managed to stay away from that group on the final climb as Stybar sprinted to 2nd. Dumoulin made it across the line 1 second later to take over the leader's jersey from Boom while yesterday's winner Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quic Step) did his best to limit his losses, ultimately dropping to 7th on GC.

Dumoulin now leads Stybar by 9 seconds ahead of tomorrow's exciting final stage which finishes on the top of the famous Kapelmuur. On a 208km course that resembles the Tour of Flanders, anything can happen and with bonus seconds on offer, the overall win is certainly not decided.

Starting at 14.15 you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

A fierce pace

The 150km stage was regarded as the hardest ever in the Eneco Tour as its summit finish on the La Redoute was unprecedented. The race finished with two laps on a 29,7km which contained 3 hard climbs in the Ardennes heartland and almost no flat roads at all.

The stage was off to an extremely fast start as the tactical battle between the big teams already started from the beginning. Due to the rapid pace, it was still all together for the first intermediate sprint. Boom showed his intentions by sprinting to 2nd, thus earning himself two bonus seconds and stretching his lead over Chavanel on GC to 6 seconds. John Degenkolb protected the position of teammate Dumoulin who was 3rd overall, by taking the maximum 3 bonus second. Points leader Andre Greipel was third and so Boom and Greipel were now equal in the points competition.

A break is formed

The aggression continued for some time and at some point a 22-rider group containing Bradley Wiggins (Sky) was up the road. That move was, however, brought back and instead a strong 11-rider group headed up the road. With 90km to go, Stijn Vandenbergh (OPQS), David Lopez (Sky), Pim Ligthart, Lieuwe Westra (both Vacansoleil), Evan Huffman (Astana), Viatcheslav Kuznetsov (Katusha), Nick Nuyens (Garmin), Maciej Paterski (Cannondale), Angel Madrazo (Movistar), Jurgen Van Goolen and Gregory Habeaux (both Accent.jobs) were 4.50 ahead of the peloton.

The gap kept growing as Belkin rolled along on the front at a steady pace, sprinter Graeme Brown doing most of the early pace-setting. With Westra starting the stage only 48 seconds down on GC, the Dutchman was now the virtual leader of the race with a clear margin.

Brown gives it his all

As the breakaway approached the bottom of the La Redoute for the first time, the gap was more than 7 minutes but the fierce battle for position made the peloton automatically up the pace. Hence, the gap now started to come down as Brown was using up his last energy.

The battle was a little bit too hectic and so a big crash took place in the front end of the peloton, bringing down most of the BMC and Argos-Shimano riders. World champion and big stage favourite Philippe Gilbert and Dumoulin were both down while BMC co-captain was forced to abandon the race.

Gilbert chases

Gilbert and Dumoulin both remounted but they faced a long chase to get back on. Dumoulin was the quicker of the two to get back on his bike while Gilbert took a little longer to find out that he was okay, finally taking off with teammates Manuel Quinziato and Amael Moinard for support.

Astana had big plans with Grivko today and so the Kazakh team accelerated furiously the first time up the climb. Dmitriy Gruzdev was the first to up the pace while Assan Bazayev was next in line. Those two riders briefly opened up a gap with Axel Domont (Ag2r) and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol) but they were brought back a little later.

A flurry of attacks

From that moment, anarchy ruled as Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Boy Van Poppel (Vacansoleil), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), Jan Bakelants (Radioshack), Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEdge), Kevin De Weert (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel) and Frederik Willems (Lotto-Belisol) all launched attacks as nobody was able to get clear, the race settled down as the peloton headed down the descent led by Greipel.

Up ahead Westra had made a small attack to take the bonus seconds in the day's second intermediate sprint but the 11 riders stayed together, Ligthart completely sacrificing himself for team captain Westra.

A chase group gets clear

On the next climb, more riders attacked from the peloton and Terpstra, Wiggins, Ian Stannard (Sky), Bakelants, Jesse Sergent (Radioshack) and Karsten Kroon (Saxo-Tinkoff) were all involved. The successful move was launched by Sergent who was joined by Stannard and De Weert to form a strong chase trio.

Wellens made a strong attack to bridge across and those 4 riders started to build up a gap over the peloton. In the main group, it was Astana who took control as Bazayev and Borut Bozic both did a strong job to keep up the speed.

Dumoulin back in the main group

Dumoulin had now made it back to the peloton which had already lost more than half of its riders while Gilbert was still chasing desperately behind. By now, the world champion only had Moinard and Danilo Wyss left to support him.

On the next climber, Wellens attacked and only De Weert was able to respond. The two Belgian climbers joined forces to gradually edge close to the front group while Stannard and Sergent fell back to the Astana-led peloton.

Lopez attacks

The next time up La Redoute, Lopez attacked from the front group and for a little while, he was the lone leader. Madrazo was the first to rejoin the Spaniard and a little later Paterski and Westra also got back on.

In the peloton, Maxim Iglinskiy applied an immense pressure to make the peloton explode into pieces. One rider who made the crucial selection was Gilbert, the world champion having made one final acceleration on his own to get back to the main group just before the climb.

Boom in difficulty

Iglinskiy's acceleration put Boom into difficulty and the race leader was now in a group with teammate Bram Tankink. Up ahead, anarchy once again ruled as attacks started to go off the front, Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ), Stybar and Terpstra being some of the most active.

Finally, Stybar made a successful move and he was joined by Jeannesson and Bakelants. Those three riders made it up to De Weert and Wellens.

Astana continues aggressive racing

Astana still had big plans for the day and so Iglinskiy attacked with Grivko and Dumoulin in his wheel. Those three riders did an outstanding job to bridge across to the chase group. Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) made a similar move on his own and so that group now consisted of 9 riders.

Vandenbergh, Nuyens and Van Goolen had rejoined the front group while Huffman, Kuznetsov, Habeaux and Ligthart were all caught by their chasers. Huffman did some solid work in the chase group to help team captain Grivko and when he fell off, Iglinskiy was the main pace-setter in that group.

Chavanel starts to chase

Wilco Kelderman (Belkin), Romain Sicard (Euskaltel) and Bjorn Leukemans (Vacansoleil) were the next to attack from the peloton but by now Omega Pharma-Quick Step sensed the danger. With Dumoulin up the road, the team risked losing everything and so Terpstra and Chavanel started a furious chase. Impressively, Boom made a strong effort on his own to get back to the main group.

Madrazo made an attack from the peloton and for a long time, he was the lone leader. Paterski was the first to rejoin him while Lopez followed a little later. Meanwhile, Westra and Van Goolen fell back to the chase group while Vandenbergh and Nuyens were caught a little later.

Chavanel attacks

There were constant attacks from the peloton but nothing stuck until Chavanel got clear with Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Kelderman and Weening in his wheel. The Frenchman was doing all the work as he tried to limit his losses to Dumoulin.

Iglinskiy had now fallen off the pace in the chase group and so it was left to Grivko and Dumoulin to do the main work. As the Ukrainian started to fade, it was ultimately left to Dumoulin to put himself into the leader's jersey by single-handedly setting the pace.

A pursuit

The race had now developed into a pursuit between the front trio, the Dumoulin group, the Chavanel group - which had grown in size as Bob Jungels (Radioshack), Maxime Monfort (Radioshack) and Sicard had joined from behind - and a bigger group with Boom and Gilbert. As they approached the finish, Gilbert attacked on his own in one last desperate attempt to save his race.

It all came down to the final climb up the La Redoute. Lopez was the first to attack but Madrazo and Paterski gradually got back on. In the chase group, Bakelants launched a fruitless acceleration until Stybar finally set off in a furious attack.

Madrazo launches his sprint

Up ahead, Madrazo opened his sprint but Lopez had no trouble responding and the Spaniard took a clear win. Madrazo faded and was overtaken by Paterski who appeared to take 2nd. However, Stybar was now approaching at a rapid pace and the Czech took the runner-up spot from the Pole in a photo finish.

Dumoulin did an outstanding job to cross the line in 4th and so he took over the leader's jersey from Boom who fell completely out of GC contention.

Result:

1. David Lopez 3.51.13

2. Zdenek Stybar +0.02

3. Maciej Paterski

4. Tom Dumoulin +0.03

5. Jan Bakelants

6. Angel Madrazo

7. Lieuwe Westra

8. Daryl Impey

9. Nick Nuyens +0.12

10. Arnold Jeannesson