Wellens wins stage 6 at Eneco Tour

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Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol) claimed a pulsating win and the leader’s jersey at the Eneco Tour on Saturday with a courageous ride on stage 6 between Heerlen and Aywaille. The Lotto rider started the day almost a minute down on the overnight leader, Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), but attacked in the closing stages after an undulating parcours reduced the peloton to less than 30 riders.

Despite a late fight back from Dumoulin and Lars Boom (Belkin), Wellens finished alone and leads the race from by seven seconds from Boom with Dumoulin third, at 13 seconds adrift.

The stage featured 16 climbs in total with three partial ascents of La Redoute included.

After just six kilomtres of racing, the day’s main break formed with Kenneth Van Bilsen (Topsport Vlaanderen), Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida), Nathan Haas (Garmin Sharp), Kevin Van Melsen (Wanty - Groupe Gobert), Alex Dowsett (Movistar Team), Nick Nuyens (Garmin Sharp), Moreno Moser (Cannondale) and Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma QuickStep breaking clear and establishing an early one-minute lead.

The group used the early set of climbs to push their advantage out and after 52 kilometres of racing the gap peaked at 7:52.

Giant Shimano and Dumoulin ushered themselves to the front of the peloton and quickly brought the leaders back to within two and half minutes.

With roughly 45 kilometres remaining, the impetus had started to wane in the initial break and it was Haas who sensed the moment had come to attack. The Garmin rider skipped clear, his acceleration enough to split the remnants of the break into several pockets of resistance as the peloton, with BMC very much to the fore, driving on.

Haas may have had a two-minute buffer with 30 kilometres remaining but the rider was already starting to weaken. He lost a minute in less than eight kilometres of racing and as the peloton closed in Alexandre Pichot (Team Europcar) launched the first key attack.

The Frenchman was soon up to and around Haas as Belkin and BMC swarmed around the isolated overall race leader. Niki Terpstra also jumped clear but it was Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ.fr) who made the real difference, bridging up to Pichot inside the final 15 kilometres of racing. Dumoulin could let both riders go but when Wellens delivered his attack, neither Dumoulin or Boom responded.

The Belgian started the stage 49 seconds down on GC and with bonus seconds available at the finish he was on the hunt for both the stage and the leader’s jersey. In no time at all, he made contact with Pichot and Jeannesson before dispatching with their company inside the final 10 kilometres.

Dumoulin had to respond and he duly did with an attack that seemed to swing the race back in his favour as first Boom and then Greg Van Avermaet and Andriy Grivko latched on.

However Wellens was unstoppable. He made light work of the penultimate climb and was the leader on the road even before he started the final ascent to the finish. Behind him Dumoulin’s group were swallowed up by the bunch before Boom gave chase with one frantic last effort.

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