Steegmans avoids mass pile-up to win
GHENT, Belgium: Belgian Gert Steegmans stunned a depleted bunch, and himself, to claim the second stage of the Tour de France ahead of Quick Step teammate Tom Boonen here on Monday.
Steegmans, known as the sprint lead-out man for his superstar compatriot, beat Boonen and around 25 other riders to the finish after a mass pile-up had caused havoc within the final two kilometers of the rain-plagued 168.5km stage.
Race leader Fabian Cancellara of the CSC team retained the leader's yellow jersey for the third day running but spent a wet day in the saddle as the peloton rode from Dunkirk over the southern Belgian coast towards Ghent.
The Swiss rider and his CSC team were forced, however, into spending precious energy chasing a three-man breakaway which had, for a short time, left Spaniard Ruben Perez as the virtual race leader.
And Cancellara was one of the numerous riders who came down after a rogue element from the Milram team brusquely moved to the right, causing a Liquigas rider behind him to tumble and forcing a major spill on both sides of the road.
The spill spelled the end of the road for Discovery Channel's Tomas Vaitkus who had to undergo surgery on a fractured thumb.
Teammate George Hincapie hurt his left knee in the crash but his team insisted the American was fit enough to continue.
Like Cancellara, who while not being a contender for overall victory lives to lead the Tour for another day.
"The pile-up gave me a fright. At the time I hurt myself, but now I feel better," said the Swiss, who retained his 13sec lead over Astana's Andreas Kloden.
The drama of the finale had allowed a much smaller bunch to race to the finish line, and ultimately for the under-fire Quick Step team to prevail after they took over the drive to the line from the T-Mobile outfit.
There were suggestions Boonen had gifted the win to Steegmans, but it could also be argued that the former track rider had earned it in his own right.
"I don't know if Tom let me win. Maybe, but the most important thing is that we finished one and two today," said Steegmans, who until last year was one of the lead-out men for Robbie McEwen.
"We missed out on yesterday's stage because of a tactical error, and today we wanted to wait as long as possible before really hitting the accelerator.
"It went to perfection."
McEwen, the Predictor-Lotto's star sprinter, had stunned Boonen in the final 150 meters of Sunday's stage to Canterbury in England when he coasted over the line with room to spare.
This time, the 35-year-old Aussie - racing in pain after Sunday's crash which left him with wrist and knee injuries - managed to escape the mass spill, but was caught by a flying bike on the way through.
That left him fighting to keep contact with Steegmans' bunch, and in the end he ran out of steam and finished sixth.
AFP
(China Daily 07/11/2007 page24)
