With two stage wins for Andre Greipel and Tony Gallopin and a yellow jersey held by Gallopin for a day, Lotto-Belisol can rightly claim to have done a successful Tour de France.
German champion Greipel took his chance to win in Reims in the absence of Mark Cavendish and on a day when Marcel Kittel faltered. He will be a favorite in the two flat stages left in this Tour.
Tony Gallopin, in the same time, went up a gear by seizing the leader's jersey in Mulhouse before taking a stage in swashbuckling fashion two days later in Oyonnax. The future belongs to him.
The overall result of the Belgian outfit is still a little disappointing in the race for the GC, Jugren Van den Broeck, twice fourth in the Tour, having been below par in this edition. Twelfth overall, 16:0s8 behind Vincenzo Nibali, the Belgian climber discovered after medical checks that he had been hampered by an infection. Treated with antibiotics, he seemed to recover a bit in the Pyrenees.
"The GC is no longer a goal but I still hope to be able to do something in this Tour. I rely on the evolution I've noticed and I'm going to see day after day what I can do," he said to letour.fr.
Nick STÖPLER 34 years | today |
Inez BEIJER 29 years | today |
Raoul LIEBREGTS 49 years | today |
Nico CLAESSENS 39 years | today |
Rolando AMARGO 28 years | today |
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