Theo Bos (Blanco) followed up his stage win in the Volta ao Algarve and double success in the Tour de Langkawi with another sprint victory today, notching up his fourth triumph of the season on stage one of the Criterium International in Corsica.
The Dutchman won a mass gallop to the line, beating French champion Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ), Jonathan Cantwell (Team Saxo Tinkoff), Clément Koretzky (Bretagne Seche), Simon Geschke (Argos Shimano) and the rest of the bunch to the line.
It was the eleventh win of the season for the former Rabobank team, which is seeking a new sponsor, and came as a result of a committed team effort. “Theo lost contact and three guys: Brown, Garate and Tankink waited for him,” said sport director Michiel Elijzen via the team’s Twitter account.
“They chased for 30km and managed to come back within the last 10km. Not much time for Bos to recuperate. Brown pulled the sprint and Theo won it. A great team effort.”
He said the riders had a particular motivation. “We wanted to set the record straight after our team lost in E3 yesterday. It is our 11th victory and we needed this one maybe the most.”
Given the short distance the riders faced, it was unsurprising that there was an aggressive start to the stage. Soon after the drop of the flag five riders got clear and set about building a decent lead; Yukiya Arashiro (Team Europcar), Romain Hardy (Cofidis), Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Arnaud Gerard (Bretagne-Seche) and Antoine Lavieu (La Pomme Marseille) combined to pull out a lead of three minutes twenty seconds.
Gerard was first to the top of the day’s sole climb, the 2.1 kilometre Cote de Conca, where the break had just over a minute and a half over the hard-chasing peloton.
Behind, the Sky and Argos Shimano teams were driving things along and ultimately caught the break with three kilometres left. From there the sprinters manoeuvred into position, with FDJ and Sojasun leading under the kite in a bid to set up Bouhanni and Hivert.
However Bos and his Blanco team did things just right and the former world track sprint champion thundered home for win number five.
All of the main contenders finished in the peloton, with defending champion Cadel Evans, his BMC Racing teammate Tejay van Garderen, Chris Froome and Paris-Nice winner Richie Porte (Sky), French hopes Tomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and others ready to fight for the race lead in this afternoon’s seven kilometre time trial.
Also finishing in the bunch was Andy Schleck (RadioShack Leopard), who performed solidly in his first race back since dropping out of Tirreno Adriatico.
Critérium International, Corsica (2.HC)
Stage 1, Porto Vecchio to Porto Vecchio 89km
1, Theo Bos (Blanco Pro Cycling) 89 kilometres in 2 hours 2 mins 43 secs
2, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ)
3, Jonathan Cantwell (Team Saxo Tinkoff)
4, Clément Koretzky (Bretagne Seche)
5, Simon Geschke (Argos Shimano)
6, Jonathan Hivert (Sojasun)
7, Kévin Reza (Europcar)
8, Yannick Martinez (La Pomme Marseille)
9, Fabien Schmidt (Sojasun)
10, Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) all same time
Overall classification:
1, Theo Bos (Blanco Pro Cycling) 89 kilometres in 2 hours 2 mins 43 secs
2, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) at 2 secs
3, Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) at 3 secs
4, Jonathan Cantwell (Team Saxo Tinkoff) at 4 secs
5, Romain Hardy (Cofidis) same
6, Jérémy Roy (FDJ) at 5 secs
7, Clément Koretzky (Bretagne Seche) at 6 secs
8, Simon Geschke (Argos Shimano)
9, Jonathan Hivert (Sojasun)
10, Kévin Reza (Europcar)
11, Yannick Martinez (La Pomme Marseille)
12, Fabien Schmidt (Sojasun)
10, Justin Jules (La Pomme Marseille) all same time