Mark Renshaw (Belkin) has won the opening stage of the 2013 Eneco Tour.
The Australian launched an attack as the bunch approached the final kilometre and held off a rampaging peloton led by Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) to claim victory in Ardooie.
Renhsaw, who next season will resume duties as lead out man for Mark Cavendish when he joins Omega Pharma-Quickstep, said his long-overdue victory for Belkin in cycling’s elite UCI WorldTour had left him “ecstatic”.
“I went as fast as I could through the last couple of corners; I took some risks. Merijn Zeeman [directeur sportif] shouted in my ear that I needed to give one hundred per cent and that’s what I did,” said Renshaw.
“I’m pretty good at keeping a high speed over a longer distance. In the last two hundred metres, I didn’t look back once and luckily I saw nobody pass me.”
Renshaw leads the ninth Eneco Tour by six seconds from Greipel, and by seven seconds from Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise’s Pieter Jacobs. Both Renshaw and Jacobs earned bonus seconds on the opening 175km stage from Koksijde.
Jacobs was one of three riders who attacked early in the stage, building a lead that stretched to 8.30, but which had been reduced by the peloton to 2.08 as it reached Ardooie for two circuits of a 15km course.
In a race boasting an abundance of sprinting talent – only Cavendish is absent from a roster of the world’s fastest riders – the breakaway seemed doomed as six of the strongest teams lifted the pace in a bid to set-up a bunch sprint. The breakaway was caught soon after the start of the second lap.
Orica-GreenEDGE had led the bunch through the opening lap, creating fissures in the peloton that found Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) among the riders dropped by the leaders.
Defending champion, Lars Boom (Belkin), won the last of the day’s intermediate sprints, claiming a three-second time bonus, perhaps in an early display of intent.
With just 5km to go, the lead out trains began to form, with Greipel’s Lotto-Beilsol squad, the most well-drilled of any at the Tour de France, racing alongside the FDJ train that delivered Arnaud Demare to victory on The Mall in the inaugural RideLondon-Surrey Classic. Belkin weren’t slow to join the party, but riding for Theo Bos rather than Renshaw.
The Australian jumped as the flamme rouge hoved into view and managed to remain at full gas, despite the long-range nature of his assault.
Eneco Tour 2013: stage one – result
1) Mark Renshaw (AUS) – Belkin Pro Cycling – 4.01.14
2) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Belisol +2”
3) Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA) – RadioShack-Leopard
4) Maximiliano Richeze (ARG) – Lampre-Merida
5) Elia Viviani (ITA) – Cannondale Pro Cycling
6) Taylor Phinney (USA) – BMC Racing
7) Michael Van Staeyen (BEL) – Topsport-Vlaanderen
8) David Apollonio (ITA) – Team Sky
9) Alessandro Petacchi (ITA) – Omega Pharma-Quickstep
10) Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana
General classification
1) Mark Renshaw (AUS) – Belkin Pro Cycling – 4.01.04
2) Andre Greipel (GER) – Lotto-Belisol +6”
3) Pieter Jacobs (BEL) – Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise
4) Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA) – Radioshack-Leopard +8″
5) Benjamin Verraes (BEL) – Accent Jobs-Wanty
6) Lars Boom (NED) – Belkin Pro Cycling +9″
7) Laurens De Vreese (BEL) – Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise
8) Taylor Phinney (USA) – BMC Racing +10″
9) Maciej Bodnar (POL) – Cannondale +11″
10) Maximiliano Richeze (ARG) – Lampre-Merida +12″
