Eneco Tour: Pibernik wins stage 6 breakaway sprint

Image 1 of 25

Luka Pibernik (Lampre-Merida) took a surprised victory at the Eneco Tour on Saturday, winning the sprint from a five-man breakaway that barely made it to the finish line ahead of the peloton. 

The 22-year-old Slovenian rider produced a long sprint effort to beat Briton’s Mark McNally (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Bert Van Lerberghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), while Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale) was fourth and the USA's Chad Haga (Giant-Alpecin) finished just behind in fifth, after also being in the move of the day and leading out the sprint.

Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) took the bunch sprint for sixth place beating Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) and Arnaud Demare (FDJ).

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) was only 45th on the day and failed to take back any time on race leader Rohan Dennis (BMC) despite his Tinkoff doing a lot of work in the finale to help chase the break. The world champion now only has Sunday’s final stage in the Flemish hills to pull back 27 seconds on Dennis.

Taylor Phinney remains second overall at 16 seconds back on his BMC teammate, while Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) remains a threat at 24 seconds.

Luka Pibernik was overjoyed but also stunned to have won the stage.

Playing with the peloton

The peloton played with the breakaway for much of the 197km stage from Riemst to Laneken in the rolling hills east of Maastricht. However the break also played with the peloton and worked smoothly together to ensure they had a chance in the finale. The break never gained a massive lead, with the gap at 4:00 with 100km remaining but they managed to retain much of that gap despite the string of often steep hills.

A couple of crashes, including one that saw Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Soudal) go down hard also slowed the peloton. The sprinters’ teams played it cautious on the climbs, with Etixx-QuickStep helping Marcel Kittel get back on several times. That helped the break believe in their chances and stay clear.

The BMC team did much of the chasing to keep Haga within reach because he was only 56 seconds down overall. However they never seemed interested in catching the break because it was in their advantage to let riders sweep up and take the bonus seconds during the stage and at the finish. Haga won all three sprints in the Golden Kilometre positioned with 20km to go and then Sagan and his teammates failed to take control of the race.

Sagan is perhaps waiting for Sunday’s far tougher final stage but arguably missed out on a chance for another stage victory and some precious time bonuses.

Full Results