10 februari 2010  - 14 februari 2010

Tour Méditerranéen Cycliste

From the 10th to the 14th of February Koen raced in the Tour Mediterraneen Cycliste Professionnele in France.

In the first stage that took the peloton over 95 kilometres there was immediately a break and 20 riders rode away. Unfortunately Koen was not part of this group and came home in the first big peloton. The group of 20 went on to win the stage with an advantage of 2 minutes on the peloton whereby Koen crossed the line in 29th place.

At the end of the second stage Koen saw his chances of a good placing in the stage go up in smoke when the peloton were mis-directed in the final 400 metres. At the time Koen was sitting in 6th place. The 13 who were misdirected, included Koens compatriot Johnny Hoogerland, eventually got to the finish via the other side of the finish line and were classified as having the same time as the stage winner.

A peloton of almost 100 riders came to the finish together at the end of the 111 km long third stage. Belarusian Yauheni Hutarovich took his second stage win of the race. Koen found the finale tough with the many sharp corners but managed to take 12th place in the sprint.

Saturday's fourth stage produced a strange winner because of almost everything going wrong for the organisers. Due to poor weather, the stage was shortened. During the course it was decided to stop the race and a finish line was made. The riders who had been in the breakaway were then given the chance to take the win on the improvised finish. The peloton who had been controlling the group's advantage were taken by surprise. The race jury decided to classify everyone with the same time.

During the final stage, Koen didn't feel the best and unfortunately he had to retire during the stage. Afterwhich he went home after getting appropriate medication.