62nd Omloop Het Volk (1.HC)

- Belgium, March 3, 2007 -

Pozzato wins again as Boonen comes up short at the end...

Italy's on-form Filippo Pozzato has won again, this time at the Belgian Semi-Classic Het Volk. The Liquigas rider beat Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) by 2 seconds with home hero and ex-world champion Tom Boonen coming home third, also 2 seconds behind the young Italian.

In the closing stages of the race it was CSC rider Stuart O'Grady and Rabobank's Flecha who were at the head of the race. Both riders drove hard towards the line but a chasing group with Boonen, Pozzato and Cofidis rider Nick Nuyens made contact with them before they had a chance to fight out the finish between themselves.

For Boonen though the finish did not go the way he had expected. Instead at the end of the 210 kilometer race he found himself lacking his usual sprint and with dead legs he could only manage third place.

Speaking on team-csc.com, CSC sporting director Scott Sunderland said, "Flecha didn't work very hard at the beginning of the break and during the final five kilometers he even tried to pull free of Stuart several times, because he didn't want to risk a sprint against him at the end. So Stuart had to use all his strength to maintain the lead and of course he was a bit annoyed by this."

Australian Sunderland concluded, "Stuart was really strong throughout the day, but it's been a few years since he's done this particular race so he couldn't remember the route as well as his rivals, who joined himself and Flecha at the end. This meant he used more strength than otherwise necessary in some situations, but still - he had the strength for a solo attack, and he was quite pleased with that afterwards."

Unibet.com were happy with their day in the saddle. Speaking on unibetcycling.com the teams sporting director Hilaire Van der Schueren said, "This was an excellent collective performance by our Unibet.com ProTour team. Everyone did a perfect job today. We were there the whole race and didn't miss any breakaway. I'm proud of the team."

Result

1 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Liquigas 5.04.38 (41,361 km/h)
2 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Rabobank 0.02
3 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic
4 Nick Nuyens (Bel) Cofidis
5 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) CSC
6 Baden Cooke (Aus) Unibet.com 0.30
7 Gorik Gardeyn (Bel) Unibet.com 0.39
8 Stefan Van Dijck (Ned) Wiesenhof-Felt
9 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
10 Steven De Jongh (Ned) Quick Step-Innergetic
11 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux
12 Andreas Klier (Ger) T-Mobile
13 Niko Eeckhout (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
14 Murilo Fischer (Bra) Liquigas
15 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Rabobank
16 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) T-Mobile
17 Gabriele Balducci (Ita) Acqua e Sapone-Caffè Mokambo
18 Jukka Vastaranta (Fin) Jartazi-Promo Fashion
19 Bas Giling (Ned) Wiesenhof-Felt
20 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Discovery Channel
21 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Unibet.com 0.45
22 Bert Roesems (Bel) Predictor-Lotto 0.49
23 Kevin Van Impe (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic 0.50
24 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Predictor-Lotto 1.02
25 Roy Sentjens (Bel) Predictor-Lotto 1.20
26 Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner 3.13
27 Eric Baumann (Ger) T-Mobile
28 Christophe Laurent (Fra) Crédit Agricole 4.26
29 Lars Bak (Den) CSC
30 Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr) AG2R Prévoyance
31 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Bouygues Telecom
32 Ralf Grabsch (Ger) Milram
33 Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel) Cofidis
34 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Milram
35 Kevin Neirynck (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner
36 Mathieu Heijboer (Ned) Cofidis
37 Frederik Veuchelen (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
38 Gregory Rast (Swi) Astana
39 Michiel Elijzen (Ned) Cofidis
40 Martin Müller (Swi) Milram
41 Sebastian Siedler (Ger) Milram
42 Frédéric Guesdon (Fra) Française des Jeux
43 Roger Hammond (GBr) T-Mobile
44 Alessandro Donati (Ita) Acqua e Sapone-Caffè Mokambo
45 Steve Cummings (GBr) Discovery Channel
46 Leif Hoste (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
47 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
48 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) Rabobank
49 William Bonnet (Fra) Crédit Agricole
50 Renaud Dion (Fra) AG2R Prévoyance
51 Roberto Petito (Ita) Liquigas
52 Manuel Quinziato (Ita) Liquigas
53 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux
54 Jimmy Casper (Fra) Unibet.com
55 Allan Johansen (Den) CSC
56 Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic
57 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Unibet.com
58 Peter Van Petegem (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic
59 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Astana
60 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Astana
61 Guennadi Mikhailov (Rus) Astana
62 Gerben Löwik (Ned) Rabobank
63 Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank)
64 Nico Mattan (Bel) DFL 6.00
65 Alessandro Cortinovis (Ita) Milram
66 Gianni Meersman (Bel) Discovery Channel
67 Wilfried Cretskens (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic
68 Aaron Kemps (Aus) Astana
69 Anders Lund (Den) CSC
70 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano
71 Wim Vansevenant (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
72 Servais Knaven (Ned) T-Mobile
73 Marco Zanotti (Ita) Unibet.com
74 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) T-Mobile
75 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Milram
76 Antonio Cruz (USA) Discovery Channel
77 Matthew White (Aus) Discovery Channel
78 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Crédit Agricole
79 Matthew Wilson (Aus) Unibet.com
80 Alessandro Vanotti (Ita) Liquigas
81 Allan Davis (Aus) Discovery Channel
82 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Unibet.com
83 Julian Dean (NZl) Crédit Agricole
84 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
85 Michael Schär (Swi) Astana 6.25