Andre Greipel of Team Columbia won the rain-soaked mass sprint in the second stage of the Eneco Tour...
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André Greipel (far left) sneaks in the win by a tire(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The break only gained four and a half minutes(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
A tight sprint on a wet day is always a bit dangerous, too.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Greipel and Haedo went neck to neck and Förster (l) and Boonen (right, red jersey) were not far back, either.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
André Greipel (Columbia) looks up after he crossed the line.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The usual victory celebration was missing as Greipel in blue and CSC's Haedo in white made the sprint too close to call.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Greipel seems happy the day is over but didn't know yet if his sprint was enough.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Boonen finished in fifth place.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Haedo sprinted hard but wasn't sure if it was enough. The photo gave the answer later. No.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Greipel was exhausted after the sprint.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Greipel had to wait for the photo but then was a happy podium man.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Greipel took his 10th season victory.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
José Iván Gutierrez Palacios retained his overall lead on a rainy day in the Netherlands.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Gutierrez is congratulated on the podium(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Gutierrez looks ahead to another day in the leader's jersey.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Gutierrez was as happy over white as the penguin over the weather.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
A smiling Gutierrez enjoys the lead.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Tom Boonen couldn't pull off the win but went to the podium nonetheless.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Boonen retained the red jersey of the points classification.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Boonen is all smiles after keeping the red jersey.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Sergey Lagutin (Collstrop), the Uzbekistan champ shows how he really feels about it.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
A Cycles Collstrop rider is all smiles.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Cedric Pineau (AG2R) was really happy.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Borut Bozic (Collstrop) is Slovenian champion.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) was eighth on the stage.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
A Lampre rider mugs for the camera.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Stéphane Poulhies and Laurent Mangel (AG2R)(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The Skil-Shimano riders were also happy to have their photo taken.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Cofidis riders ham it up for the camera.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
André Greipel (Columbia) and JJ Haedo roll away from the finish after taking first and second.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Colombian Marlon Alirio Perez (Caisse d'Epargne) was lead-out man today.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Lars Bak (CSC-Saxo Bank) says 'hi'.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Team CSC scored a nice second on the stage but will want more from the Eneco Tour.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Luis Leon Sanchez and Jose Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne)(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Tom Boonen (Quick Step) kept the sprint leader's jersey.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Floris Goesinnen (Skil-Shimano) carries his bouquet away after the KOM podium(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Heinrich Haussler and Thomas Fothen (Gerolsteiner)(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Cédric Pineau (AG2R) and Yauheni Hutarovich (FdJ) pal around after the finish of stage two.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The Scott-American Beef team(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Elio Rigotto (Milram) snuck into the top ten in the sprint.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The break only gained four and a half minutes on the sprint-hungry peloton.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Artur Gajek (Milram) rides in the stage two breakaway.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Matthé Pronk (Cycle Collstrop) was in the breakaway.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Ermanno Capelli (Scott-American Beef) and Francisco Javier Aramendia (Euskaltel-Euskadi) were two of the men in the breakaway.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Caisse d'Epargne controls the bunch for overall leader Jose Gutierrez.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The peloton enjoys dry roads for the meantime…(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
The Astana team chilling out in the peloton.(Image credit: Isabelle Duchesne)
Andre Greipel of Team Columbia won the rain-soaked mass sprint in the second stage of the Eneco Tour for his tenth win of the year. The German beat out Juan Jose Haedo (CSC) and Robert Förster (Gerolsteiner) in a close dash to the line. Jose Ivan Gutierrez of Caisse d'Epargne held on to his overall lead, but only just, as Columbia's Edvald Boassan Hagen pulled even with him on time through the intermediate sprints.
"I've lost count of how many sprints Andre has won this year," said Columbia Directeur Sportif Tristan Hoffman. "He dominated the Tour Down Under in Australia and has won another ProTour stage here. He and all the team were good today. John Devine and Servais Knaven worked with other teams to chase the break and then the boys dominated the sprint. There were two lead out trains: Columbia and Liquigas for Bennati but we were the fastest yet again."
Gutierrez now leads Boassan Hagen by a mere 16 hundredths of a second, the advantage he had in the opening prologue. "That's close and so perhaps we can get the lead in the next few days. However, we don't want to wear out the team and then lose the race by several minutes. We're going to ride smart," said Hoffman.
An escape group formed early with David Deroo (Skil Shimano), Artur Gajek (Milram), Matthé Pronk (Cycle Collstrop), Ermanno Capelli (Scott) and Javier Aramendia Lorente (Euskaltel). They built up a lead of up to four and a half minutes. As the peloton finally caught up with them, Gajek refused to give up and stayed away as a solo for a few more kilometers before finally being overtaken.
How it unfolded
The peloton set out under a cloudy sky again, this time without Gianni Meersman of Francaise des Jeux. Underway, both Andre Steensen of CSC and Nicolas Crosbie of Bouygues Telecom climbed off their bikes.
The riders must have anticipated the heavy rains which were to set in, as they got off to a fast start. Only after 53 kilometres was a group of five able to get away.
David Deroo (Skil-Shimano), Artur Gajek (Team Milram), Matthé Pronk (Cycle Collstrop), Ermanno Capelli (Scott) and Javier Aramandia Lorente (Euskaltel-Euskadi) built up a lead of up to four and minutes. The 23 year-old Gajek was the best placed in the group, only 17 seconds down in the overall ranking, so he wore the "virtual" leader's jersey much of the day.
As the rains set in, the group's lead came down. Silence-Lotto led the charge to catch them. Underway, Gerben Löwik of Rabobank tried to get away, but was quickly caught up again. Kevin Hulsman moved to the front of the pack with 40 km to go to help set up a mass sprint for his Quick Step team-mate Tom Boonen, who won the previous day.
With only ten kilometres to go, the peloton finally caught the escapees, but Gajek wasn't ready to admit defeat, and took off by himself. Two kilometres later, though, he too was caught by the fast-flying (and wet) peloton.
Daniele Bennati, who finished second in the first stage, was brought up to the front by his Liquigas team-mates, but on this day the Italian was not able to get to the front, as Greipel took the win ahead of Haedo and Förster.
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