SpiderTech riding strong in Europe

After a very encouraging debut in Europe at Paris-Corrèze last week where Guillaume Boivin scored a strong ninth place on Stage 2, Team SpiderTech powered by Planet Energy had an even better day Sunday in Germany at the UCI 1.1 Sparkassen Giro. The 165 km race started in pouring rain making the course, which featured two big hills on each of the 11 laps, quite challenging. 

Immediately from the start, yellow jersey wearer at the Tour de France, Tony Martin (HTC) broke away with Luke Roberts (Milram). The duo pushed the pace of the race over the first four laps, but the peloton never allowed them more lead than a minute. Eventually the strong men were caught and the race continued aggressively with groups going away and coming back. At 4.5 laps to go, the peloton split with 25 riders in front containing three SpiderTech riders: Guillaume Boivin, David Boily and Bruno Langlois. Once another 15 riders bridged across, the main peleton lost interest and it came down to that lead group of 40.

With two laps to go, Langlois followed a key attack making a decisive breakaway with six other riders. Boivin has been riding well in Corrèze, so Langlois sat on the break discouraging the lead group. Milram eventually pulled the break back and the counter attack with Boivin formed approaching one lap to go with nine riders in the lead. The time gap increased to 20 seconds as the small group aimed at the final two hills of the day. Boily, protecting Boivin’s lead, followed a counter attack which eventually emerged as a five-man chase group. Two men in front were dropped with Boivin attacking, feeling strong among the seven-lead men. Over the final hill, all breakaway attempts were absorbed until six km to go. Niki Terpstra (Milram) attacked solo without any immediate reaction from the other 6 riders in the break. There was no cooperative chase created, so Terpstra stayed clearly out front clear and won by a mere10 seconds.

Boivin timed his sprint perfectly coming off of Andre Greipel’s wheel immediately after the final turn in the short 220 meter final straight away scoring second place. Boily won the sprint in front of his small chase group of five men finishing an excellent ninth at one minute back. Langlois completed a commendable team performance in 30th place in the main chase group at one minute 10secs back (same group time as 14th).

Great performances though were balanced by sadness as team rider Andrew Randell slipped and fell hard fracturing his left femur, high up below the greater trochanter. Andrew has undergone surgery at the Bermannsheil Hospital in Bochum, Germany. He will head back to Canada upon his release in few days.

Next on the team’s schedule:
August 12-15 UCI 2.2 Mi-Août Bretonne, FRA (6 riders) www.miaoutbretonne.com
August 17 UCI 1.1 GP Zottergem, BEL (10 riders) www.gpzottegem.be