August 9/10 10:22 am - Team SpiderTech Report from Europe
Posted by Editoress on 08/9/10
Team SpiderTech Proves its Capabilities on European Soil, but Loses Randell in Crash
After a very encouraging debut in Europe at Paris-Corrèze (August 4-5), where Guillaume Boivin scored a strong ninth place on Stage 2, the team's strength and cohesion was demonstrated with a superb performance in Germany on Sunday.
The 11 lap UCI 1.1 Sparkassen Giro started in the pouring rain at 18C. It was to be a challenging day, with two substantial hills per lap, which would help the strong men emerge over the 165 kilometre distance. Immediately from the start, Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) broke away with Luke Roberts (Milram). The duo pushed the pace of the race over four laps, but the peloton never allowed them a lead of more than a minute.
Eventually, the strong men were caught, but the race continued aggressively, with groups going away and coming back. The pace never waned. At 4.5 laps to go, the peloton split with 25 riders in front containing three of our men - Guillaume Boivin, David Boily and Bruno Langlois. Approximately 15 riders bridged across, making a lead group of 40 riders. Once the gap was established the main peloton lost any chasing interest and the lead group cruised one lap without any further attacking, recuperating from the intense racing over the last two hours.
The heavy rain began to subside and certain areas of the race course were exposed to intermittent sun. With two laps to go, Bruno Langlois followed a very important attack, making a decisive breakaway with six other riders. Boivin has been riding well in Corrèze, so Bruno Langlois sat on the break discouraging the lead riders. Milram eventually pulled the break back and a counterattack, including Boivin, formed. With one lap to go there were now nine riders in the lead.
The time gap increased to 20 seconds as the small group approached at the final two hills of the day. David Boily protected Boivin's lead by following a counterattack, which eventually emerged as a five man chase group. Two men in front were dropped, with Boivin attacking and feeling strong among the seven lead men.
Over the final hill, all breakaway attempts were absorbed until six kilometres to go. Niki Terpstra (Milram) attacked solo without any immediate reaction from the other six riders in the break. There was no cooperative chase created, so Terpstra stayed clearly out front clear and won by a mere ten seconds.
Boivin timed his sprint perfectly, coming off of Andre Greipel's wheel immediately after the final turn in the short 220 meter final straight away, scoring second place. David Boily won the sprint in front of his small chase group of five men, finishing an excellent ninth at one minute back. Bruno Langlois completed a commendable team performance in 30th place in the main chase group at 1:10 (same group time as 14th), having excelled as ideal team man for the day.
Great performances were balanced by sadness, as team rider Andrew Randell slipped and fell hard, fracturing his left femur, high up below the greater trochanter. Andrew has undergone surgery at the Bermannsheil Hospital in Bochum, Germany. He will head back to Canada upon his release in few days.
Next on the team's schedule:
August 12-15: Mi-Août Bretonne, France (6 riders)
August 17: GP Zottergem, Belgium (10 riders)
Press release courtesy Team Spidertech presented by Planet Energy
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