Bak solos to Eneco Tour win

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Lars Ytting Bak of Team Saxo Bank won the "Little Amstel Gold Race" stage of the Eneco Tour on Sunday, attacking out of a lead group with two kilometres remaining. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) won the sprint for second from Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre).

Boasson Hagen, who started the day in third place overall only 23 seconds down, picked up enough bonus seconds both underway and at the finish to take over the general classification lead.

“I wasn't sure of the win until 200 metres to go,” said Bak. “I had to go deep, and I was almost faint from the effort.”

Looking to the final two stages, the Dane noted, ”I am an all rounder and can do a lot when I'm in form, also a time trial. But for the overall win I tip my Norwegian friend Edvald Boasson Hagen.”

"It was a very difficult stage today,” said Boasson Hagen. He had two teammates with him in the escape group, and said they were all surprised when Rabobank attacked out of the group on the Eyserbosweg, “because that was the steepest climb.”

The 22-year-old Norwegian had hoped that the others would chase when Bak jumped at the end, since he wanted to save himself for the sprint. It didn't happen, “but I'm happy with second place and the bonus seconds that came with it. Winning the leader's jersey was our team's main goal today.”

Boasson Hagen now hopes for little wind tomorrow, and figures he has a good chance to hold on to the lead at the closing time trial. That final stage “is quite short and technical, which I usually do well at.”

Farrar held on to second place overall by finishing in the first chase group, and is now 15 seconds back, in the same time as third-placed Bak. His Garmin-Slipstream teammate Bradley Wiggins, who was considered a favourite for the overall title, dropped out of contention by finishing over 10 minutes down.

It was a wild race, as a trio got away early, to be joined near the end by a larger group. The chasing peloton came close, but not close enough.

One hundred and fifty-one riders were at the start of Sunday's stage in Roermond, as the race returned to the Netherlands. The day's difficult 204.3-kilometre course took the riders over a grand total of 16 of those short, steep climbs to be found in this part of Europe. The stage started and ended in the Netherlands, but in between dipped its toe into both Belgium and Germany.

The stage has been called "a little Amstel Gold race", as it goes over much of the same roads as the famous Spring Classic. It even paid a visit to the famous Cauberg at km 151.

Missing at the start was Damien Gaudin (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), who was in the previous day's long escape group. In addition, several riders dropped out during the stage, Arnaud Labbe (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) had to leave after crashing in the neutralised section, and later Aurelien Clerc (AG2R) and Ben Hermans (Topsport Vlaanderen) left the race.

Once again, a trio of riders got away early. Only two kilometres into the stage, Sergio de Lis (Euskaltel), David Deroo (Skil-Shimano) and Jens Mouris (Vacansoleil) took off and quickly built up a lead. And what a lead! By km 77, the lead had skyrocketed to 17:35.

But either the peloton finally woke up or the difficult course got to the trio, as the gap fell to just over 10 minutes with 100 km to go. Columbia-HTC led the chase, and brought it down to about eight minutes.

That wasn't enough for Rabobank, which was still looking to do well in its homeland race, and the Dutch team moved to the lead. Rick Flens led the charge, and Nick Nuyens put in such a high pace at the front on the Eyserbosweg that the peloton fell into pieces.

With 81 kilometres to go, a strong 15-man group took off in pursuit. Prologue winner Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), third-placed Edvald Boasson Hagen, Maxime Monfort, and Michael Rogers (all Columbia-HTC), Jurgen Van Goolen and Lars Ytting Bak (both Saxo Bank),Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Greg Van Avermaet and Johan Vansummeren (all Silence-Lotto), Juan Flecha, Sebastian Langefeld and Joost Posthuma (all Rabobank), Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre) and Jan Bakelants (Topsport Vlaanderen) quickly built up a minute lead on the peloton.

Garmin-Slipstream, with race leader Tyler Farrar and overall favourite Bradley Wiggins, was not represented in the group. The American team led the chase.

The gap between the leading trio and the chasing 15 continued to fall while the gap back to the peloton stayed at about one minute.

On the Doodeman climb, with 63 km to go, the peloton came within 30 seconds of the chase group, which was the signal to Rabobank to take action. Flecha and Posthuma took off, exploding the group. Only Gavazzi, Nibali and Van Avermaet were able to go with them.

The other 10 caught them again, though, a few kilometres later. As the race headed up the Cauberg, the three leaders had not quite a minute lead over the chasers. A peloton of about 60 riders, including first and second placed Farrar and Tom Boonen, was only about 45 seconds behind the chasers.

With 48 kilometres to go, the escape of the trio was over, as the 15 chasers caught them. They maintained a one-minute gap on the peloton. Garmin-Slipstream, still unrepresented in the lead, desperately led the chase, with Wiggins himself at the front of the group, but the gap dropped only very slowly, hitting one minute 26 kilometres before the finish.

The lead group stayed together on the difficult short climbs, and entered the final 20-kilometre circuit course with a 1:10 lead. It looked like they would be able to stay away for the win, but Garmin-Slipstream and Caisse d'Epargne put on the pressure and picked up the speed, cutting the lead to 30 seconds within three kilometres.

Farrar and Wiggins joined forces at the head of the chase, and their combined efforts broke the peloton to pieces. Ahead of them, Chavanel jumped from the lead group, followed first by Bakelants and then by the rest of the group. Caisse d'Epargne moved to lead the peloton in chase.

Vansummeren had the bad luck to puncture at six kilometres to go, knocking him out of the lead group. The break went into the final five kilometres with a narrow 26-second lead.

Nibali tried his luck, but was stopped by a crash. Bak took off as the group had a 37-second lead at the two kilometre to go banner. He went under the red kite at one kilometre to go eight seconds ahead of his group, and was able to stay away until the end.