Mark
Cavendish made it look easy with his text-book/video game sprint finish in
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, but it was especially thanks to Vacansoleil-DCM that it
actually ended up in a mass sprint.
Vacansoleil-DCM working hard in front of the peloton in order to catch the break. |
Kenny Van
Hummel may not be among the best sprinters in world, but he has been showing
great condition so far this year, stating he feels stronger than ever before at
this time of year. So despite having Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel next to
him, Van Hummel moved to the front with 5 team mates in front of him, railing
the breakaway back in.
Boeckmans places Van Hummel up front ready to jump when Cavendish kicks. |
When the
break was caught, Team Sky took over and with 45 km to go they never let anyone
else take the front. On the last kilometer, Vacansoleil-DCM moved near the
front with Kris Boeckmans and Kenny Van Hummel. Boeckmans placed Van Hummel in
a perfect position with 300 meters to go and when Cavendish kicked, Van Hummel
was right behind him. Yauheni Hutarovich then passed him, but Kenny Van Hummel
still managed to hold on to 3rd place.
I must say
I'm really impressed by the faith Vacansoleil-DCM showed Kenny Van Hummel.
Knowing that it very well would mean Mark Cavendish taking the win, they put
5-6 guys to the front of the peloton just to give Van Hummel a shot at beating
the World Champion. I take my hat off for Vacansoleil-DCM for showing that kind
of confidence in their sprinter and to Kenny Van Hummel as well for almost
pulling it off and still getting on the podium.
Since Mark
Cavendish took over as the best sprinter in the world, almost no other teams
have been helping catching the breakaways, simply because they know they didn't
have a chance of beating him. Therefore I think it's very refreshing to see a
team like Vacansoleil-DCM helping out, even though no one would have expected
them to do so. Thumbs up!
No comments:
Post a Comment