Canadian Cyclist

 

March 9/14 14:18 pm - Boivin 4th on the Opening Stage of Tour de Taiwan


Posted by Editoress on 03/9/14
 

Luke Keough of Unitedhealthcare delivered a masterpiece of pure American criterium style racing as he overcame the wet conditions of the roads to emerge as a winner of the inaugural stage of the 2014 Tour de Taiwan in front of Taipei’s city hall.

“Last year I crashed in that same stage with similar weather conditions, so I knew what to do this time”, Keough commented as he got off his bike to celebrate his first international victory. “It was a little crazy at the end with a few crashes that took some of my team-mates down. But I still had Martin Irvyne and John Murphy staying together to lead me out. They did a perfect job.”

“It’s big for us to come to Taiwan and win”, the American continued. “One of our sponsors, Maxxis, is from here. Today’s stage was a test for every part of our equipment. It’s great to keep performing in Asia. We’ve had some good success recently.” No later than yesterday in Malaysia, Uhc’s Colombian climber Isaac Bolivar completed Le Tour de Langkawi in third position overall while road captain Bradley White won stage 5.

“We have a strong team and big races coming up in Europe with wild cards for Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix”, added the 22 year old from California who is known as a specialist for this kind of short, fast and flat racing. “He was lucky to be on the other side of the crashes”, noted runner up Wouter Wippert from defending champions Drapac. “I had to close a gap, so the sprint was too short for me.”

A born sprinter, Keough indicated that he might not be able to keep the jersey all the way through the five stages of the Tour de Taiwan but his team has ambitions for the overall classification with Murphy who won the 2008 edition of the race.

However, one of the hot favorites for this year took a great profit of the characteristics of stage 1. It featured only five laps and 52 kilometers with the famous tower Taipei 101 as a backdrop for the finish but Frenchman Rémy Di Gregorio of La Pomme Marseille rode away in the first lap, accompanied by Greek Apostolos Bouglas from SP Tableware. Staying away until the last lap, they captured the time bonus of the three intermediate sprints. Having bagged seven seconds, Di Gregorio has an advantage over the other climbers ahead of the hillier stages. “He rode very smartly, that’s exactly what I would have tried to do if I was still a rider”, noticed Taiwan’s cycling legend David McCann who is now a sport director for Synergy Baku and designated Di Gregorio as the man to beat as of now.

Courtesy Tour de Taiwan

 

Guillaume Boivin (Cannondale) finished 4th on the stage in the same time as the winner

"There was a crash on a corner about 400 metres from the finish line and the first three had a good lead. I tried to get back to them, but the gap was too big",  said Boivin to Sportcom .

"I think it's a Tour where one will (need to) take a lot of risks to win", noted Boivin.

 

 

Results

Stage 1: Taipei City Circuit, 52 km
1 Luke Keough (USA) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team 1:06:24
2 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling
3 Georgios Bouglas (Gre) SP Tableware
4 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Cannondale
5 Shih Hsin Hsiao (Tpe) Team Gusto
6 Shiki Kuroeda (Jpn) Japan National Team
7 Jan Dieteren (Ger) Team Stölting
8 Marco Zanotti (Ita) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Cycling Team
9 Benjamin Giraud (Fra) Team La Pomme Marseille 13
10 Christoph Schweizer (Ger) Synergy Baku Cycling Project
11 Phan Åge Haugård (Nor) Frøy - Bianchi
12 Samir Jabrayilov (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling Project
13 Jan Sokol (Aut) Synergy Baku Cycling Project
14 Po Hung Wu (Tpe) Taiwan National Team
15 Jasper Ockeloen (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Cycling Team
16 Kohei Uchima (Jpn) Japan National Team
17 Muhammad Zulhilmie Afif Ahmad Zamri (Mas) Terengganu Cycling Team
18 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
19 Ioannis Tamouridis (Gre) SP Tableware
20 Tomas Buchacek (Cze) Bauknecht - Author
21 Takashi Miyazawa (Jpn) Japan National Team
22 John Murphy (USA) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
23 Khalil Khorshid (IRI) Tabriz Shahrdari Ranking
24 Chun Wing Leung (HKg) Hongkong National Team
25 Kun Hung Hung (Tpe) Taiwan National Team
26 Hossein Alizadeh (IRI) Tabriz Shahrdari Ranking
27 Wesley Sulzberger (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
28 Agshin Ismayilov (Aze) Synergy Baku Cycling Project
29 Martin Hunal (Cze) Bauknecht - Author
30 Ching Feng Liu (Tpe) Team Gusto
31 Georgios Karatzios (Gre) SP Tableware
32 Jan Kadúch (Cze) Bauknecht - Author
33 Jaap Jacobus Christiaan Roelof Kooijman (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Cycling Team
34 Christoph Springer (Ger) Team Vorarlberg
35 Ruslan Karimov (Uzb) Usbekistan National TeamUsbekistan
36 Hsin Hua Huang (Tpe) Taiwan National Team
37 Maarten De Jonge (Ned) Terengganu Cycling Team
38 Kwun Wan Law (HKg) Hongkong National Team
39 Remco Broers (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Cycling Team
40 Nicolas Lefrancois (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
41 Jiri Polnicky (Cze) Bauknecht - Author
42 Robbie Hucker (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
43 Pawel Cieslik (Pol) Bauknecht - Author
44 Rémy Di Gregorio (Fra) Team La Pomme Marseille 13
45 Markus Eibegger (Aut) Synergy Baku Cycling Project
46 Grischa Janorschke (Ger) Team Vorarlberg
47 Thomas Vaubourzeix (Fra) Team La Pomme Marseille 13
48 Yasuharu Nakajima (Jpn) Japan National Team
49 Stephen Clancy (Irl) Team Novo Nordisk
50 Tim Gebauer (Ger) Team Stölting
51 Saeid Safarzadeh (IRI) Tabriz Shahrdari Ranking
52 Malcom Rudolph (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
53 Henrik Evensen (Nor) Frøy - Bianchi
54 King Lok Cheung (HKg) Hongkong National Team
55 Denis Shaymanov (Uzb) Usbekistan National TeamUsbekistan
56 Vadim Shaekhov (Uzb) Usbekistan National TeamUsbekistan
57 Chun Kai Feng (Tpe) Team Gusto
58 Antoine Lavieu (Fra) Team La Pomme Marseille 13
59 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale
60 Periklis Ilias (Gre) SP Tableware
61 Gleb Gorbachev (Uzb) Usbekistan National TeamUsbekistan
62 Martyn Irvine (Irl) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
63 En Chieh Liu (Tpe) Taiwan National Team
64 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
65 Yi Hao Tseng (Tpe) Taiwan National Team
66 Edward King (USA) Cannondale
67 Brian Bulgac (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental Cycling Team
68 Yoann Paillot (Fra) Team La Pomme Marseille 13
69 Nan Wu (Chn) Giant - Champion System Pro Cycling
70 Kamnabi Hossein Jahanbanian (IRI) Tabriz Shahrdari Ranking
71 Alireza Asgharzadeh (IRI) Tabriz Shahrdari Ranking
72 Oddbjorn Klomsten Andersen (Nor) Frøy - Bianchi
73 Chun Hing Chan (HKg) Hongkong National Team
74 Yusup Abrekov (Uzb) Usbekistan National TeamUsbekistan
75 Wei Cheng Lee (Tpe) Team Gusto
76 Zhong Yuan (Chn) Giant - Champion System Pro Cycling
77 Jean Marc Marino (Fra) Cannondale
78 Kristian Engen Forbord (Nor) Frøy - Bianchi
79 Cameron Wurf (Aus) Cannondale
80 Dominik Hrinkow (Aut) Team Vorarlberg
81 Jan Oelerich (Ger) Team Stölting
82 Jeffry Louder (USA) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
83 Lijun Bai (Chn) Giant - Champion System Pro Cycling
84 Benjamin Johnson (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
85 Christian Mager (Ger) Team Stölting
86 Yusrizal Usoff (Mas) Terengganu Cycling Team
87 Hao Liu (Chn) Giant - Champion System Pro Cycling
88 Nils Politt (Ger) Team Stölting
89 Justin Stuart Morris (Aus) Team Novo Nordisk
90 Shu Ming Liu (Tpe) Team Gusto all s.t.
91 Nur Amirul Fakhruddin Marzuki (Mas) Terengganu Cycling Team 0:30
92 Apostolos Bouglas (Gre) SP Tableware 0:42
93 Fabian Schnaidt (Ger) Team Vorarlberg s.t.
94 Muradjan Halmuratov (Uzb) Terengganu Cycling Team 0:51
95 Aldo Ino Ilesic (Slo) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team 0:56
96 Hideto Nakane (Jpn) Japan National Team s.t.
97 Nicolas Baldo (Fra) Team Vorarlberg 5:27
DNF Jin Yang (Chn) Giant - Champion System Pro Cycling
DNS Halvor Tandrevold (Nor) Frøy - Bianchi

 

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