Bak more than a worker at Lotto Belisol

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After two seasons in a domestique role with Bob Stapleton’s HTC - Highroad and Team HTC - Columbia squads, Lars Bak is getting his chance for individual glory on the Lotto Belisol team. Bak took his second victory of the year at GP de Fourmies when he bridged to a two-man leading group in the closing 10km of the 205km race.

Bak made contact with the leading pair of Oscar Freire (Katusha) and Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank) with approximately 8km to go. The trio held onto a slim advantage with just five kilometres remaining and continued to work well together. The peloton had nearly made catch shortly after travelling under red-kite banner and so Bak attacked solo, holding the bunch off to finish on his own.

"The way I won is similar to my stage win in the Giro and I treasure this victory as highly. In France the race is shown live on television, this rates at the same level as Paris-Brussels yesterday and on the honor roll are beautiful names," said Bak on Lottobelisol.be.

After riding as a worker for two seasons with Highroad and another five beforehand with Riis at Saxo Bank, Bak is relishing his new role and season with Lotto Belisol. In the previous day, at Paris-Bruxelles, he was in the early breakaway and with a calmer start to the following day's race, Bak was clearly ready to attack again.

"Yesterday I was on the attack in Paris-Brussels for 150 kilometers. Today was relatively calm in the initial phase and the good weather meant my legs could loosen up," he said.

The 32-year-old made the switch to the Belgian team at the end of last season and has since delivered both personally and for the team. His first success came in stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia and then continued to the Tour de France where he played an integral part in André Greipel’s three stage wins. It’s the role he was looking for at the end of last year and he’s since found it at Lotto.