Guardini wins Eneco Tour opener

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Andrea Guardini (Astana) came back from a late crash to win the opening stage of the Eneco Tour in Terneuzen. The Italian placed himself perfectly in the hectic final sprint to beat Yohann Gène (Europcar) and Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida).

Wind and rain wreaked havoc on the peloton in the final 30 kilometres of the stage. Guardini was one of several riders to crash in the run-up to the finish as several riders fell foul of the rain and roundabouts. The Astana man came down on the penultimate lap, but suffered no lasting side effects.

Several riders took advantage of the confusion caused by the crashes and launched late attacks, and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) led into the finishing straight. Guardini found himself boxed in on the right-hand side of the road as the peloton swooped around the final bend. However, he was able to wriggle free and used the wheels of some struggling escapees to launch his sprint.

At one point it seemed like Dumoulin might be able to hold on for victory, but he couldn’t hold off the charging Italian who swooped past him in the final 300 metres. Gène was the only rider to get close to Guardini, but still finished over a bike length behind him.

Guardini will wear the leader’s jersey in stage, after taking 10 bonus seconds at the finish. He leads Gène by four seconds in the general classification.

How it happened

The 2014 Eneco Tour kicked off in the Netherlands, with a field featuring many riders beginning their preparation for the Vuelta a España and world championships. As ever in this part of the world, the wind was in attendance as the riders set off for 183.1km of racing from Terneuzen and back.

Another unwelcome visitor to the race was the rain, which began falling not long before the start of the stage. It didn’t last too long, but it was enough to make the roads wet and it would make another appearance before the day was done.

Laurens De Vreese (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Kenneth Vanbilsen (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) escaped early on. They would stay out front for most of the day. The trio gradually built up a maximum lead of 8:30 over the peloton, after 42km.
The winds did their worst towards the end of the stage, as the peloton split in two with around 35 kilometres still to run. The unlucky riders were given some salvation in a headwind as the roads continued to twist and turn towards the finish. It was then that the rain decided to return and Astana’s Andrea Guardini became one of its victims, as he took a tumble.

The three escapees took advantage of the rain and extended their lead and their time out front. But the rain bit back and Smukulis found himself sliding along the tarmac, almost taking De Vreese with him. That would spell the end of his day in the break. He was quickly caught by a small group, which had come off the front of the peloton.

De Vreese and Vanbilsen were caught by the Trek-led peloton soon afterwards and with 17 kilometres remaining the bunch was together again. The wind continued to do its damage on the peloton, but mercifully for the riders the rain did abate. Well accustomed to the conditions, Omega Pharma-QuickStep did much of the pace setting in the closing kilometres.

Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) was one of the riders who struggled in the wind. As the Italian tried to join the front of the peloton he touched wheels with another rider, which sent him tumbling. Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) would also miss the sprint finish after he was caught up in the crash.

It wouldn’t be the last crash as the road furniture caught out a few riders. Trek Factory Racing sprinter Danny van Poppel was one of the riders to come down and he narrowly missed hitting a pole on the side of the road.

The crashes caused a split in the group and the resulting confusion allowed a number of riders to get away, but in the final reckoning, Guardini’s speed won out to claim his third victory in less than a week, following his two stage wins at the Tour of Denmark.

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