23 juli 2011
- 27 juli 2011
Tour de Wallonie
From Saturday July 23rd until Wednesday July 27th, the Tour de
Wallonie stage race will took place. After a four week period of
training, this race marked the start of the second half of Koen's
season.
The race kicked off with a 152.1 kilometre stage on Saturday from
Amay to Banneux. Despite several breakaways, including one which
Koen was involved in, the stage finished in a mass sprint. Koen was
closed off in the sprint, and crossed the line in 18th place.
Sunday's stage brought the peloton from Wanze to Houffalize over a
distance of 194.4km and ended with an uphill finish in Houffalize.
After all the breakaway riders were caught, one by one, Belgian
Greg van Avermaet attacked on the finishing climb. In the final
metres he was caught by the Dutchman Joost van Leijen. Koen was
well placed on the climb and finished the stage in 10th place.
Koen obtained a good 6th place in the mass sprint that decided
the honours of the third stage that took the riders from
Sambreville to Perwez over 224.4km. Italian Daniele Bennati took
the win and finished off the hard work of the Leopard-Trek
team.
The fourth stage from Enghien to Mousron over 151.6km ended in
yet another mass sprint. Koen crossed the line in 21st place but
more importantly during the stage Koen won the first intermediate
sprint and took the 3 bonification seconds that were on offer.
Thanks to these bonification seconds he moved up a spot in the
general classification to 9th place, 23 seconds down on race leader
Greg van Avermaet. Van Avermaet leads with the same time as the
second placed rider Van Leijen. The riders in the fifth through to
the eighth place on the general classification are all tied on
equal time, being 20 seconds down on Van Avermaet and Van
Leijen.
Koen finished the Tour de Wallonie by obtaining a fine fourth
place in the final 154 kilometre stage from Charleroi to Thuin.
General classification leader Greg van Avermaet bested Joost van
Leijen in both the stage and the general classification as both
riders were tied on time coming into the stage. Koen finished the
race in 9th place overall.
By clicking here you can view a summary of the final stage
(in French)