Ster ZLM Toer: Greipel victory raises Lotto-Belisol win tally to twenty

Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) got his 13th win of the season, tops in the professional peloton in 2012, after taking stage two of the Ster ZLM Toer on Friday. The big German’s thirteenth win gives Lotto-Belisol an even twenty for the season, slotting them fourth behind just Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Sky Procycling, and Liquigas-Cannondale.

Greipel was faster than Mark Cavendish (Sky Procycling) and Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), second and third respectively, in the bunch kick. All three are tied on time, but Cavendish slots into the leader’s jersey, after stage one winner Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) lost two seconds today.

“I have won in these preparation races, in the Tour of Belgium and the Tour of Luxembourg. Here in the ZLM Toer, I have won again, so I am in good shape for the Tour,” Greipel said at the finish. “I know I am fast. If I maintain my position in the peloton and if the team does well then I know I can win [in July].”

Stage two took riders on a 167-kilometer jaunt that began and ended in Schimmert. Four riders got away early, as Bart Van Haaren and Jim Van Den Berg (Koga), along with Nathan Haas (Garmin-Barracuda) and Nikolas Maes (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) built a maximum lead of near five minutes. Bobbie Traksel (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony) broke away later and toiled alone midway through the gap for the first part of the stage.

Maes would later suffer a mechanical and drop out of the lead group, but two more joined from behind. Later, with Traksel back in the peloton, and then Van Den Berg, the peloton closed in as the kilometres ticked down. The Team Sky-led peloton soon had them all swallowed up.

One more lone attack was vanquished inside the final ten kilometres, and Griepel proved fastest of the lot.

Team director Marc Sergeant commented on victory number twenty for Lotto-Belisol in what is technically its first year as a professional squad.

“Twenty victories at this point in the season is a nice number,” Sergeant mused. “Of course there have been many sprint victories for Andre Greipel, but it is not so simple as that. That means each time you have to sit at the front, you can make no errors, and you still have to finish well. His victories in the Tour Down Under were important to have a good feeling in the first months.

“The absence of a (semi-) Classic victory is the gap in the list [of wins], although Jelle Vanendert in the Ardennes Classics was close. Among the greatest victories, I count the Giro d’Italia ride of Lars Bak because of the sporting value, and the stage win by Jürgen Roelandts in the Tour of Luxembourg because of the emotional value. Both had to return from a serious injury - Bak a hand fracture, Roelandts a fracture of the cervical vertebra - and they were the riders in the spring that we missed.”