general

marcel kittel (project 1t4i) took the sprint finish on the shortened second stage – what was suppose to be a 149km stage from nimes to saint-ambroix turned into 5 laps around the 7.3km finishing circuit.  kris boeckmans (vacansoleil-dcm) and nacer bouhanni (fdj-bigmat) finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.  snow and freezing temperatures forced race organizers to cancel the first part of the race – they began the stage at the day’s feed zone, eliminating the two climbs of the day.

kittel is currently in the lead for the gc with bouhanni 2 seconds down, and bobbie traksel (landbouwkrediet) 9 seconds down.

photo from steephill.

nacer bouhanni (fdj-bigmat) took the sprint victory on stage 1 of the etoile de bessèges in bellegarde.  bouhanni won ahead of marcel kittel (project 1t4i) and bobbie traksel (landbouwkrediet).  the opening stage of the race was marked with heavy crosswinds – numerous groups tried to establish breaks and echelons, but only fdj-bigmat stepped in to settle the pace, the day’s break finally formed.  koen barbe (landbouwkrediet) and steven van vooren (topsport vlaanderen) broke off the front and lead 5 minutes over the peloton.  the peloton split, with the main front group being 80 deep.  the break was eventually caught, which opened up another opportunity.  pieter vanspeybrouck (topsport vlaanderen), tony hurel (europcar), jonathan thiré (auber 93), anthony delaplace and jérôme coppel (saur-sojasun) gained a brief 15 seconds over the peloton, but with project 1t4i and fdj-bigmat leading the chase, they were eventually caught.

photo from steephill.

tom boonen (omega pharma-quickstep) took the sprint victory on the final stage of the tour de san luis.  his teammate, levi leipheimer, also secured the overall victory for the race.  omega pharma-quickstep is off to a great season – they took the first two stages and levi took the individual time trial.

the 167km stage comprised of a 50km circuit looped 3 times.  edwin avila (columbia) took the first intermediate sprint ahead of daniel diaz (san luis somos todos) and stefan schumacher (christina watches-onfone).  jesus rosendo (andalucia) attacked off the front mid-lap – renato seabra (brazil) and douglas moy (funvic) bridged.  the trio gained 2 minutes over the peloton, but were reeled in afterwards.  avila ended up taking the last intermediate sprint, sealing the sprint classification in his name.  omega pharma-quickstep and saxo bank set up the peloton for a fast downhill finish.

photo from cycling news.