By Brecht Decaluwé
Rabobank's Michael Boogerd played his card at the Côte de Sprimont, getting himself in a break with Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver from Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears. It looked promising - very promising, in fact - until they were caught with less than five kilometres to go.
Nevertheless, the Dutchman added another top-five placing to his palmarès this Spring: "It came as a surprise to me how we got into that break, taking a few metres on top of the Côte de Sprimont, but when you get an opportunity like that, you can't hesitate," Boogerd said.
"When the others caught us, I looked around and saw that everybody was very tired; I was even able to catch up with them. With that knowledge, maybe I should have spared myself for an attack on the Côte de Saint-Nicolas. But that's done for now, I'll just keep pedalling," the always smiling Dutchman said. "Erik Dekker did a lot of work for me and on La Redoute, I didn't suffer."
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