Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Team RadioShack Sweep Podium in West Flanders

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News Cycling Pro Road & Mtb 2011

Published on Friday, 04 March 2011 20:16

Written by Luca Salvatelli

 Team RadioShack stormed the opening Prologue and dominated the time trial for day one of Driedaagse van West- Vlaanderen on Friday, taking 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7th in an impressive show of power from the Team riders. New Zealander Jesse Sergent (22) wasted no time in taking his first professional win, grabbing top honors in the 7k Prologue at the opener on Friday. The neo-pro Sergent put ten seconds into his closest rivals, who happened to be teammates Sébastien Rosseler and Sam Bewley, making it a Team RadioShack sweep on the podium. Further dominating the stage, team riders Michal Kwiatkowski and Nélson Oliveira took fifth and 7th on the stage, putting five riders in the top seven places.

"This is my first pro victory," said an excited Jesse Sergent after the stage. “What a feeling! This is pretty special and I am happy to give back something to the people who have believed in me. This morning after I checked the course I felt quite confident. It was not a technical course; there were only three corners and long straights. I could use constant power the entire time. I had a feeling I would do a good ride and I’m very happy right now!”

Team Director Dirk Demol added, “Jesse was strong. It was all flat but the last 3.5k had a head wind. It’s strange, but Jesse even accelerated there when others died. At the mid-way point he had the same split time as Rosseler, then you see the big difference at the end. Jesse deserves it. All riders did the race in the same conditions. Séba was good too and this is promising for him. He still needs to lose some kilos so he’ll be ok at the classics. It’s also nice what Bewley did – and he’s a pursuit rider. And then Kwiatkowski, a former world champion and double European champion and Oliveira, a three-time national time trial champion. Wow! Now we will try to win the overall too but it won’t be easy.”

It was an out-and-back flat course through Middelkerke with a long finishing straight along the coast. Sergent, the silver medalist of the 2010 world pursuit championships, is no stranger to time trial wins. Riding for Trek-Livestrong last year, he won the time trial stage in the Tour of the Gila, besting specialists Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie.

Sam Bewley was an early starter on the roster of 198 riders, posting the best time through much of the race before teammate Michal Kwiatkowski came within one second of Sam’s time. But then came fellow countryman Sergent, taking the lead with a decisive ten-second lead.

Two days of racing remain in West Flanders. Hoping to keep the race lead, Sergent said, “We will give it a go. We have nothing to lose. A lot will depend on the crosswinds in the coming days. Fortunately we have Rosseler, Rast and Demol – guys who know the roads and have the experience.”

Result Prologue Middelkerke ITT 7 K / 4.3 mi

1 Jesse Sergent (Team RadioShack) 0:08:14 ; 2 Sébastien Rosseler (Team RadioShack) 00:10; 3 Sam Bewley (Team RadioShack); 4 Svein Tuft; 5 Michal Kwiatkowski (Team RadioShack) 00:11; 6 Patrick Gretsch; 7 Nélson Oliveira (Team RadioShack) 00:15; 8 Jimmy Engoulvent 00:19; 9 Robert Wagner 00:20; 10 Roger Kluge 00:21