31 juli 2011

Sparkassen Giro

On Sunday July 31st Koen lined up in the Sparkassen Giro, in Bochum, Germany. For a long time, a group of 11 riders led the race. This leading group contained two of Koen's Skil-Shimano teammates, German Martin Reimer and Frenchman Thomas Damuseau. With about 30 kilometres to go, several riders dropped off the pace so that with one lap of 14.6 kilometres to go, five led the race with an advantage of 43 seconds over the peloton with Damuseau on behalf of Skil.
The five were caught in the finale and it was Koen who went off alone, launching off the final climb of the race with seven kilometres remaining. His maximum advantage was 8 seconds and unfortunately he was not able to stay ahead.

With about three kilometres to go, he was caught by a depleted peloton and a mass sprint ensued. Koen followed at the back of the 50 man peloton. When a late crash took out his teammate Roger Kluge, Koen stopped to see if everything was already. At the head of the race, Belgian Pieter Vanspeybrouck won the race. Koen's teammates Robin Chaigneau and Roy Curvers finished in 5th and 7th respectively.

Koen crossed the line in 74th place, 1'47" down on Vanspeybrouck. Despite needing stitches, Kluge managed to come out of the crash with nothing broken luckily enough.