De Haes continues Lotto’s winning streak

On the day when AG2R La Mondiale and BMC Racing Team both secured their first win of the season in France and Qatar respectively, the first of 4 one day races took place in Mallorca.

Trofeo Palma de Mallorca was raced as a criterium with the riders doing 10 laps of 11.6 km making for a total of 116 km.

A breakaway consisting of Perrig Quemeneur (Team Europcar), Francisco Moreno (Caja Rural) and Mikel Aristi from Continental team Euskadi (formerly known as Orbea) dominated the criterium. Their lead peaked at 3 minutes and 50 seconds but with 28 km still to race the peloton had caught up with the breakaway.

It was no surprise, therefore, that a bunch sprint would decide the winner. Kenny De Haes (Lotto Belisol) denied Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) and Ben Swift (Sky) to take the spoils. The victory ends an 8-year long winning drought for De Haes and extends the comfortable lead at the top of this season’s victory list enjoyed by the Belgian team after 4 stage wins in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo and three stage wins in Tour Down Under.