Results:
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Cadel Evans
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45th at 4'20"
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DNF
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DNF
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45th more than 4 minutes down, this wasn't of course the expected result for Kim Kirchen, who had made of this world championships his major goal of the season. But if the result wasn't quite as good as he hoped for, Kim certainly had deserved more than this because he was at the head of the race from the beginning to the end, his tactics were smart enough and he was into the battle for the title until 10 kilometres from the finish. But then, he had to settle down against cycling's big nations like Italy, Spain and ... Australia. The riders from Down Under took their responsabilities at the right moment and it was due to their action that the break containing Kim Kirchen was reeled in again. They were rewarded at the end with the title for one of the most active riders during the whole season, Cadel Evans. Under splendid weather conditions, 201 riders out of 45 different countries lined up at 10h30 in the morning for 262 difficult kilometres in and around Mendrisio.
The first attacks didn't wait long to come and after a very, very animated race begin, it was a group of 10 riders who managed to break away, including sprinter André Greipel but also the two outsiders Gorazd Stangelj and Mauricio Ardila. Together with Arashiro, Kvasina, Sokoll, Kusztor, Barta, Melehs or Zagorodny, they built up a six-minute lead on a peloton that was controlled by the Italians, a peloton in which Kim Kirchen also showed himself at the front from time to time. Bit by bit, team Azzuri has raised the speed and with seven laps to go, they launched a counter attack with Ballan, Scarponi, Visconti and Paolini. Several more riders jumped on that train, including Barredo, Rodriguez, Cobo, Boonen, Hoogerland, Albasini, Rogers, Karpets and Kim Kirchen. The attention of the rider from Luxembourg had paid off and he was in a very good group, just riding in the wheels and waiting for the things to come. For Jempy Drucker however, the acceleration of the Italians meant the end of his dreams and, after having worked for Kim Kirchen during the whole race until then, he was dropped and stepped off his bike. With about 50 kilometres to go, the group Kirchen had chased down the early break, but the Australia-led peloton never was more than a minute back on them. A peloton in which Andy Schleck wasn't present any longer, the Luxembourg National champion wasn't in his best day and he didn't finish the race like lots of other riders too. Kim Kirchen had to take his responsibilities though and he took some action in the group. On the penultimate lap, Kim took himself control of the group on one of the two climbs and made a selection, which only Joaquim Rodriguez being as strong as the Luxemburgish rider. Four contenders found themselves in the lead after Kim's action, but the group with the main favourites were only a few meters behind them. Fabian Cancellara was the first one to bridge up on the descent, followed by Freire, Cunego and the others: they were still about twenty riders in contention with one round to go. The decision was to fall in the last lap though and Alexander Kolobnev was one of the first favourites to attack, followed by Fabian Cancellara. They were only 10 riders to be able to follow the acceleration of the two Saxo-Bank Riders: Sanchez, Gilbert, Cunego, Basso, Valverde, Breschel and Evans were up there, whereas Kim Kirchen was beginning to feel tired after more than 250 kilometres of racing. He had already wasted some strength in his break and just failed to get into the good group, riding a few metres behind them. The Best were up at the front, battling for the title, but three of them simply were stronger than the others and broke away. Cadel Evans, Joaquim Rodriguez and Alexander Kolobnev took off in the downhill part and then the Australian attacked on his own just before the last climb of the day. The Silence-Lotto rider has been unlucky so often during the last seaons, but this time everything went right and he flew away to a historic win. Cadel Evans was the first Australian rider to become elite road-race world champion, 27 seconds ahead of Kolobnev and Rodriguez and 30 seconds ahead of the other favourites, led by Sanchez and Cancellara. Kim Kirchen took it easy after having been dropped from the lead group on the last lap and he finished behind the first peloton in 45th position after a race that counted 15 kilometres too much for him.
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September 12 - 19, 2009: 6th Tour of Britain
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19.09.2009 8. London - London (93 km)
Merlo and Boasson Hagen are the winners
Results:
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Michele Merlo
Edvald Boasson Hagen
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78th at 0"
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23rd at 52"
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The last stage of the Tour of Britain consisted in a short criterium in the streets of London, on a spectacular course including a ride along the Thames River, on the Westminster bridge or in front of the Buckingham palace. Nothing to worry about for Edvald Boasson Hagen whose yellow jersey never really was in danger and the race finished with the expected bunch sprint after the race had been controled by Columbia. But Kim Kirchen, Lövqvist, Montfort and co didn't have to complain about lack of work since their were numerous attacks and still some bonus seconds to gain on the stage. The first rider to break awas was Thomas De Gendt, who blocked his counter of kilometres covered ahead of the bunch during this Tour at 600, before being caught again. Lequatre, Clarke, Stamsnijder, Lapthorne, Appollonio were name of other riders who tried their luck, before a trio composed by Clancy, Roche and Craven led the race during several kilometres. But Euskatel and Barloworld wanted a bunch sprint today and they helped Columbia in the chase, so that all the breaks were swallowed up. Thomas and Froome from Barloworld let out the sprint for their team-mate Michele Merlo who did it better than in the first stage when he was second. Behind Merlo, Koldo Fernandez and Chris Sutton took positions 2 and 3, whereas Boasson Hagen did not participate in the sprint and preferred celebrating his overall win in the middle of the bunch. Several positions behind his team-mate, Kim Kirchen crossed the finish line in 78th position at the back of the peloton. He was up at the front on every day during this Tour of Britain and never lost any time. He finishes 23rd in the overall classification, 52 bonus seconds behind the winner Boasson Hagen after a week of hard work. This should have been a good ride for his legs and his morale, one week ahead of the world championships.
18.09.2009 7. Hatherleigh - Yeovil (160 km)
Swift ends Norvegian winning streak
Results:
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Ben Swift
Edvald Boasson Hagen
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65th at 0"
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22nd at 49"
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Today was maybe the most difficult stage in the Tour, the penultimate one between the small towns of Hatherleigh and Yeovil, in the South-West of England with lots of small climbs and continous up and down. In addition, there were numerous attacks right from the start and the peloton even broke into several groups at the beginning of the stage. Two riders, Galdos and Savini, were at the head of the race with a considerable gap during a moment, but a counter-attack from Monfort, Martin, Soler, Thomas, Cummings and Lequatre on Cadbury HIll reduced their chances and led to a general regroupement after 60 kilometres of crazy racing. British National champion Kristian House and Stian Remme had a little bit more luck, since the tired peloton led them slip away and take up to five minutes of advantage before resuming the chase again and reeling in this break with 10 kilometres to go. Barloworld showed themselves at the head of the race in the final kilometres, before Filippo Pozzato took the lead and launched the sprint for his team-mate Ben Swift. The British rider made everything right and his victory ended the winning streak of Boasson Hagen. The Norvegian finished the stage in third position behind the two Katusha riders and will thus line up tomorrow in the yellow jersey of stage leader for the last stage in the city of London. Kim Kirchen finished the stage in 65th place at the back of a main bunch that counted only 66 units: the stage had been very, very demanding for all the riders, but especially for the members of team Columbia who did again most of the work in the peloton.
17.09.2009 6. Frome - Bidefort (184 km)
Four in a row for Boasson Hagen
Results:
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Edvald Boasson Hagen
Edvald Boasson Hagen
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64th at 0"
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22nd at 45"
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The sixth stage through the beautiful contrysides of Somerset and Deven presented again some small climbs, with among others the steep Devil's Elbow at mid-race and the category one rated Winsford Hill with 60 kilometers to go. The never tiring Thomas De Gendt probably wanted to consolidate the mountains jersey as well as the intermediate sprint jersey, who he can call his own after his multiple attempts during the first three days, and so he once again took off in the beginning of the stage, this time together with Serge Pauwels, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas. A strong group, but they never had much of an advantage since Columbia had taken control of the peloton in order to make sure that the gap stayed in reasonable limits. At the summit of the major climb of the day, the four leader barely had two minutes on the peloton led by Kim Kirchen and towards the end of the stage, Columbia reduced the gap more and more. With the support of Cervélo, they reeled the break in with one and a half kilometres to go. For fifth time in six stages, the race ended with a bunch sprint and for the fourth time in the row, the name of the winner was the same: Edvald Boasson Hagen. The owner of the yellow jersey took the victory ahead of Reimer, Downing, Fernandez, De Negro, Merlo and Sutton, with Kim Kirchen finishing inside the peloton in position 64, after a hard day of work.
16.09.2009 5. Stoke-on-Trent - Stoke-on-Trent (134 km)
Boasson Hagen still and again
Results:
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Edvald Boasson Hagen
Edvald Boasson Hagen
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51st at 0"
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22nd at 35"
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Edvald Boasson Hagen continues his winning way on the Tour of Britain, by grabbing his third stage in a row, making it a total of six in only two participations on the race. With the support of his team-mates, the Norvegian time-trial champion again showed a perfect sprint and left no chance to Pozzato, Downing, Galdos and Clarkem, who took the next positions in this order. The stage was very animated from the beginning with a big group of 15 breaking away in the first kilometers, among them riders like Kim Kirchen, Thomas, Lloyd or Pozzato to name only a few. It was Agritubel and ISD, two teams that were not present in the break, who helped Rabobank to chase down this dangerous group, which succeeded after a short, but tough poursuit. After about an hour of racing, a group of four composed by Marangoni, Fleeman, Vogondy and local rider Lapthorne finnally managed to get away and on one of the most reknowned climbs of the Tour, Gun Hill, they had 2 minutes advantage on the Columbia-led peloton. Kim Kirchen and his team-mates stayed in control of the peloton after that and surely but slowly reduced the gap, only to swallow up the escaped riders one by one in the last 10 kilometers. There wasn't anything to do against another bunch sprint, won by Edvald Boasson Hagen who remembered the video of his win in last year's stage at exactly the same location. At the same time and due to the bonus seconds, the Norvegian takes over the yellow jersey from the shoulders of Kai Reus, who is now second overall at 9". After he has done his work today, Kim Kirchen finished at the end of the first pack in 51st position, and he is still inside the Top 30 overall, 22nd exactly at 35 seconds of his team-mate Boasson Hagen.
15.09.2009 4. Blackpool - Blackpool (148 km)
Boasson Hagen scores double
Results:
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Edvald Boasson Hagen
Kai Reus
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53rd at 0"
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29th at 26"
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Last year, Edvald Boasson Hagen impressed on the Tour of Britain by winning three stages and, at the same time, the sprinter competition of the event. This year, Kim Kirchen's team-mate probably wants to do as well since he has just won his second stage in as many days by sprinting faster than Australian Chris Sutton and German Martin Reimer. As of the beginning of this Scottish stage, there were lots of attacks and for once, it was not Thomas De Gendt who was able to break away, but a trio of riders with Nicolas Roche, Frederico Canuti and Simon Clarke. Today's stage was a little bit more difficult than the previous ones and some of the bigger names wanted to show themselves like Maxime Monfort, Vladimir Karpets, Geraint Thomas or defending champion Geoffroy Lequatre. They managed to bridge up to the three leaders, but behind them, the team-mates of Chris Sutton showed a big effort to bring back the peloton, which was done just before entering the finishing straight. Columbia immediately took control of the peloton after the regroupement and despite a crash in the last kilometre, it was again Boasson Hagen who was fastest on the line, beating a first peloton of 80 riders, among them Kim Kirchen who finished the stage in 53rd position. Before the hilly stage in the West Midlands, the Luxemburgish rider still is in a good position overall, since he is less than 30 seconds down on Kai Reus, still leader with a tiny second advantage on the winner of the day.
14.09.2009 3. Peebles - Gretna Green (154 km)
Columbia makes winning move
Results:
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Edvald Boasson Hagen
Kai Reus
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34th at 0"
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24th at 26"
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Team Columbia with Kim Kirchen made the winning move on the 3rd stage of the Tour of Britain 2009, when Norvegian Edvald Boasson Hagen took the stage victory in a bunch sprint ahead of Michael Merlo and the winner of the fist stage, Chris Sutton. He thereby rewarded the hard work done by his team to reel in different breaks today. The longest attempt was realized by Thomas De Gendt, who has done more than an indredible 400 kilometers in different breaks during the first three days, German champion Martin Reimer, Darren Lapthorne and Rob Ruygh, who is well known in Luxemburgish races and now rides for Ducht professionnal squad Vacansoleil. But with about twenty kilometres to go, the three were caught again, while Christophe Laurent, then Vladimir Karpets and finally Emilien Bergčs made some solo attempts. The Frenchman rode ahead of the peloton during more than ten kilometres, but he also had to forget his dreams for victory when the Columbia train stormed past him under the red flag. Kim Kirchen was present at the front of the peloton, he finished 34th of the stage while team-mate Tony Martin took over to prepare the sprint for Boasson Hagen.
13.09.2009 2. Darlington - Newcastle (153 km)
Comeback for Kai Reus
Results:
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Kai Reus
Kai Reus
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32nd at 9"
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26nd at 26"
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By winning the second stage of this Tour of Britain, Kai Reus has made his big comeback out of a long period of doubts and pain. He is considered as one of the biggest talents ever in Dutch cycling and won everything in the U23 category, leading the dominating line-up of the Rabobank Continental squad during that time. But down in 2007, he had a severe crash on a training ride which sent him into a coma and to hospital for a whole month. It was only in September 2008, just twelve months ago, that he resumed cycling races and due to the absence of his team-mate Stef Clement, he was able to gain his spot in the Rabobank team for this year's Tour of Britain. This victory is thus a big relief for him, even more because it was taken in a convincing manner. Kai Reus eventually was in the early break of the day that attacked after around 40 kilometers of hard racing, together with Thomas De Gendt, again him and with Estonien Tanel Kangert from AG2R. At 10 kilometers from the finish line, the chances of the break were small and their advantage had melted to less than a minute. But the Dutch rider was not willing to give up and he took off alone, resisting to the chasing peloton led on the large roads of North-Eastern England by some famous rouleurs like Wiggins, Lövqvist or Kirchen. Reus finally won the stage 9 seconds ahead of Alexander Kristof and Edvald Boasson Hagen, the team-mate of Kim Kirchen. The latter also finished inside the big peloton, in 32nd position this time.
12.09.2009 1. Scunthorpe - York (173 km)
Garmin in the winning mood
Results:
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Chris Sutton
Chris Sutton
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30th at 0"
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31st at 10"
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After Kim Kirchen was forced to quit the Vuelta due to illness, he luckily found another stage race to put some hard race kilometers into his legs ahead of the worlds in Mendrisio. Of course, the race lacks of high mountains, but the numerous small climbs in the event makes the racing tough, should allow him to get some good rythm and they also make up for some offensive and spectacular racing. That is also the meaning of Martin Mortensen and Thomas De Gendt since they attacked right at the star of the first stage and opened the road during more than 150 kilometres. But unfortunately for them, the Garmin team is in a winning mood at the moment after the victories of Farrar in Spain and of Zabriskie in the Tour of Missouri and they were very motivated to catch the break and prepare the sprint for their fast man Chris Sutton. This was done with about twenty kilometres to go and in the end, the Australian sprinter rewarded his team-mates with another win ahead of Michael Merlo and Ben Swift, certainly the biggest victory in his young carreer. Kim Kirchen finished the race inside the peloton in 30th position.
Month of september
In good shape
After a tough Grand-prix Tell, Jempy Drucker's form seems to be OK at the beginning of the months of September, where he has some nice races in his schedule. Like the Grand-prix Jef Scherens in Leuven, a prestigious race that is held entirely inside the town of Leuven, with lots of turns and an impressive
Results:
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| GP Jef Scherens
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Sebastian Langeveld
52nd at 0"
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| Izegem Koerse
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Aidis Kruopis
9th at 0"
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of mini-climbs that hurt the legs. The decision was made with about 30 kilometers to go when Nick Nuyens, Sebastian Langeveld, Greg Van Avermaet Fabian Wegmann, Frédéric Amorison, Arnoud van Groen, Sylvain Chavanel, Stijn Vandenbergh, Geoffroy Lequatre, Johan Coenen and Bert De Waele attacked in several waves out of the peloton to form a big leading group. Langeveld, Vandenbergh, Amorison, Chavanel and Nuyens showed out to be the strongest in the end and they took the lead in the last five kilometres, crossing the finish line in this order after a tight sprint. The peloton wasn't far behind the break and finished 25 seconds late with Jempy Drucker in 52nd position. They were about 80 riders in this first group that was led over the line by Dutch rider Dirk Bellemakers ahead of Polazzi et Hondo. At Izegem Koerse however, the peloton sprinted for the win and this time, Jempy Drucker matched up in the rush to the line. He finished the race at in a good ninth position, with only Lituanian winner Aidis Kruopis as well as Ricci, Van Stayen, Caethoven, Feillu, Keisse, Bacquet and Van Dijk ahead of him. They were still around 100 out of the 269 starting riders sprinting for the win, among them some professionnal riders from the teams Landbouwkrediet, Agritubel, Liquigas, Silence-Lotto and Française des Jeux as was as another rider from Luxemburg, Laurent Didier who finished in 104th position at the back of the field.
From September 18 to 20, Jempy Drucker has participated in the Tour de Moselle and, of course, he didn't have to travel very far.
Results:
GP Tell
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(1)
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Yannick Marie
56th at 7'13"
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(2a)
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Pim Ligthart
100th at 3'04"
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(2b)
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Sven Jodts
DNF
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Yannick Marie
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The start of the first stage was in Mondorff, next the home of the Schleck brothers and finish was in Entrange, also only a few kilometres form the Luxemburgish border. There aren't only flat roads in this part of the Lorraine region and the first stage was already selective with three climbs, the last of them with only 20 kilometres to go until the finish line. The peloton splitted up into pieces on the tough course and only 30 riders remained at the front, with all the others being far behind, more than 7 minutes. Jempy Drucker was in the second group and he finished in 56th position in the stage, just behind his team-mate Tom Wecker. At the front of the race, two riders managed to leave everyone behind and arrived in Entrange with 30 seconds advantage on the next chasers. Frenchman Yannick Marie proved fastest in the sprint and won the stage ahead of another rider from France, Alexandre Geniez. But the latter found a nice consolidation price on the next day when he took the yellow leader jersey after the morning time-trial won by Pim Ligthard. At 48 km/h average speed, the Dutchman showed himself 6" faster than Thomas Girard and 7" better than Geniez. For Jempy Drucker, things didn't turn out that well and he finished the test against the clock only in 100th position, 3 minutes and 4 seconds behind the winner. Jempy was very tired after some intense training weeks and didn't get any power onto the pedals, so that he was not able to finish the stage of the afternoon. During this difficult stage, Yannick Marie reclaimed the yellow jersey again and retained it also on the last stage for a nice overall victory.
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Schleck
