Betancur sprints to final stage win in Belgium

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German riders for Belgian teams dominated the Tour of Belgium, as Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) defended his lead on the final stage to take the overall title. Martin had won the previous day's time trial, while his countryman Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) had won the first three stages.

Sunday's closing stage was won by Colombian Carlos Alberto Betancur (Acqua & Sapone), who outsprinted Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor) and Sergey Firsanov (RusVelo). The three finished only seconds ahead of an escape group which was caught almost on the line.

The final stage was the race's queen stage. A group of riders had broken away, including Carlos Barredo (Rabobank), who was a threat to Martin's leader's jersey. The German personally led the chase, working alone at the head of the chase group to defend his lead, but he also had help from Lotto Belisol. He finished seventh on the stage, only eight seconds behind the winner.

“I knew the day would be tough with all those hills,” he told sporza.be. “The team worked hard but when Barredo was gone and I was along, I was lucky enough to get a little help form my friend Griepel. That's what friends are for.”

"The whole stage was pretty hard, like expected," Martin said according to his team. "The profile, I think it was 16 climbs, really hard climbs from the Ardennes Classics, so we knew it would be a hard stage. But we really had a strong team here. We controlled the race right from the beginning, and then in the final I took the risk to stay in front, so that the gap in front couldn't get far away. It was really hard, but I have to say thank you to the whole team. The whole week they always protected me. I am happy for this team that we could win this race here."

"It was an important race for me. I didn't have a win yet. I had some physical problems due to the crash, and it takes always a while to get with a new team and get used to everything, but I think we are now in a really good way. It's important to get confidence for the future." He heads next to the Critérium du Dauphiné as next step, in preparation for the Tour de France.

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