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Chavanel wins Eneco opener, Farrar second
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When Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) says he’s on good form, you better believe him.
Fresh off sprinting to victory in Sunday’s Hamburg Cyclassics race in Germany, Farrar came within a whisker of winning the opening prologue at the Eneco Tour, which clicked into gear Tuesday with a 4.4km course.
Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) took the flowers, and the first leader’s jersey of the ProTour race, stopping the clock in 4 minutes, 55 seconds. Farrar came through second at just one second slower and Tom Boonen (Quick Step) was third, just slightly slower than Farrar, also one second back.
“It was a fast course, not too difficult, not very technical. I felt good,” Chavanel said. “I was hoping to have a good result. Waiting to see the final was terrible. This is my first time at the Eneco tour. I will remain concentrated for the rest of the week and the objective is clearly to win the overall.”
Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream) just missed the podium, stopping the clock fourth at two seconds slower in the very tight race that saw the top-10 divided by less than five seconds.
With a handful of top 10s all season, the win is only Chavanel’s second on the 2009 season. He won a stage at Paris-Nice back in March.
The race continues Wednesday with the first stage, 184km from Aalter, Holland, to Ardooie in Belgium, on a course that favors Boonen, Farrar and the rest of the sprinters.
