« Stage 2 underway | Main | Stage 1 TT graph »

July 03, 2005

Boonen takes Stage 2, green jersey

Quick Step's Tom Boonen outsprinted the field to take the first sprint finish of the 2005 Tour.

The 25-year-old has had a terrific season, winning Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, two stages at Paris-Nice, and the Tour of Belgium. He took Stage 7 and Stage 21 of last year's Tour, as well.

One of the very interesting subplots this year is the battle for the green jersey: Boonen, Hushovd, and McEwen are the favorites, and Boonen takes the early lead in that competition.

Top 10 (all same time):

1) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, 3:51:31
2) Thor Hushovd, Credit Agricole
3) Robbie McEwen, Davitamon-Lotto
4) Stuart O'Grady, Cofidis
5) Luciano Pagliarini, Liquigas-Bianchi
6) Juan Antonio Flecha, Fassa Bortolo
7) Peter Wrolich, Gerolsteiner
8) Jerome Pineau, Bouygues Telecom
9) Baden Cooke, Française Des Jeux
10) Allan Davis, Liberty Seguros

I was discounting O'Grady this year, but that's a pretty competitive placing.

There was a late crash featuring Samuel Dumoulin; I guess this is as good a time as any to note that the “last 1 km” rule is now a “last 3 km” rule, where riders who crash in the peloton in the last 3 kilometers get the same time as the main field.

Armstrong post-race quote:

“I figure the faster I pedal, the faster I can retire.”

Bodrogi moves up into 3rd on the GC, based on an intermediate sprint bonus.

Also:

Yahoo! Sport | Boonen scares Belgium by almost quitting

Posted by Frank Steele on July 3, 2005 in Baden Cooke, Stage results, Stuart O'Grady, Thor Hushovd, Tom Boonen, Top Stories | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bf6df53ef00d8344be4df53ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Boonen takes Stage 2, green jersey:

Comments

Uh oh - as they did after Ullrich's lackluster climbing performances in the Tour de Suisse, Eurosport is making dire predictions of "non-fruitiness" for the T-Mobile squad in this year's TdF - from

http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/v4/l0/s18/e7203/sport_lng0_spo18_evt7203_sto738195.shtml :

"The horizon is not so fruity for T-Mobile however. With Jan Ullrich dramatically overtaken by Armstrong with four kilometres remaining on Saturday, and with 2004 runner-up Andreas Klöden coming home over two minutes off the pace to confirm his frankly poor condition this term, tensions must be rising within the German outfit."

Funny line from dailypeloton.com's live online coverage of stage 2:

"The fans are thick on the side of the road today. Take that however you want."

Posted by: EWM at Jul 3, 2005 3:30:30 PM

Thanx 4 giving us a daily dose of GOOD NEWS about
the Le Tour de Lance!

Posted by: Marjan Swantek at Jul 4, 2005 1:05:37 AM