Martijn Maaskant sprints on stage 1
Director’s report from Johnny Weltz
A sunny day in Belgium without wind opened the Classics week here! It was a very fast start and several times we had a bigger group take off with Friedman in it, but none of them succeeded. Not until 60 km into the race did a group of six take off with riders from some smaller teams . They got a 5 minute advantage before Lotto took everyone by surprise, by attacking that early in the race with the whole team!
21 riders took off with Martijn in it, then Pozatto and a Lotto rider joined the group and that was it. Behind Boonen attacked the field with six riders to try to brigde up as no Quick Step was in there, and they got to 10 seconds but then they exploded. So the 23 joined the 6 riders in front and the bunch was at 3 min. Pozzato attacked several times and split the group.
In the end it was him and Willems who ended up in the front with Martijn behind attacking several times to try to bridge up but didn’t succeed. In the end Pozzato took the stage ahead of the Belgian — Martijn was fourth in the sprint of the group who came in 1 minute down.
Happy to be done with stage 1 and ready for more!
Team Garmin-Slipstream, stage 1 results
1. Filippo Pozzato 4h37’01
6. Martijn Maaskant +0’57
46. Michael Friedman +13’14
48. Bradley Wiggins
49. Chris Sutton
66. Svein Tuft
69. Steven Cozza
91. Will Frischkorn
128. Hans Dekkers
Team Garmin-Slipstream GC results
1. Filippo Pozzato 4h36’51
6. Martijn Maaskant +1’07
48. Michael Friedman +13’24
50. Bradley Wiggins
51. Chris Sutton
68. Svein Tuft
71. Steven Cozza
93. Will Frischkorn
128. Hans Dekkers
