Since this afternoon Lotto Soudal has thirty official UCI victories! André Greipel won the second stage of the Eneco Tour with start and finish in Breda. The whole team helped to prepare the sprint and Jens Debusschere was the lead-out man for the Gorilla.
Greipel is now second overall, five seconds behind Jesper Asselman, who rode in front until the last fifteen kilometres together with Gijs Van Hoecke. Lotto Soudal let Stig Broeckx help in the chase and later also Tim Wellens and Tiesj Benoot pulled at the head of the bunch. The other five did their job perfectly as well.
Tomorrow there’s another chance for the sprinters. Greipel will wear the points jersey.
“Today’s stage was quite relaxed, with only two riders in front," Greipel said. "We had a plan. Maybe it was a bit too early to come to the front for us, but it turned out Stig Broeckx, Tim Wellens and Tiesj Benoot were strong enough to keep us in front until three kilometres to go. Then we could rely on the experience of Marcel Sieberg, Greg Henderson and Jürgen Roelandts. Afterwards Jens Debusschere took over and I finished it off. It was a great team effort, the guys nearly carried me to the line.
"There was a bit of a headwind and the team really made the difference, I’m grateful to the guys. As planned Jens was my lead-out man today. Hendy is not up to his best yet after his crash in the Tour. I already worked good together with Jens during the Tour.
“Yesterday we also tried to win. I didn’t need to get back in the rhythm after the rest I took after the Tour, it just didn’t work out. The competition is really strong here at the Eneco Tour. Yesterday it was hard to stay together.
Did the Gorilla feel any added pressure? "I think I can handle that. I've already proven something in the past. You win and lose together. Today Stig (Broeckx), Tiesj (Benoot) and Tim (Wellens) kept us at the front perfectly. And then the other guys led out the sprint, with a big engine like Marcel (Sieberg). He is the most important part of the chain.
"Tomorrow’s another opportunity with the stage to Ardooie, where I already won in 2011 and 2010. I’m second on GC, but I don’t think about taking over the leader’s jersey. Tomorrow is a new day and a new chance of a sprint. I now wear the points jersey, but there are some really hard stages still coming up, we’ll see if I can hang on to that one.
About an hour after Greipel's win, Kenny Dehaes won Heusden Koers.
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