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Saturday's Eurofile: Nuyens wins Paris-Brussels
Belgian Nick Nuyens (Quick Step-Davitamon) won the 84th edition of Paris-Brussels on Saturday, edging Philippe Gilbert (Fdjeux.com) and Denmark’s Allan Johansen (BankGiroLoterij).
Briton Jeremy Hunt (MrBookmaker.com) won the field sprint for fourth a few seconds later.
The race really began 60km from the finish when the favorites’ teams decided to end a long breakaway by Netherlander Rudie Kemna (BankGiroLoterij) and Frenchman Benoit Poilvet (Crédit Agricole), who had an 11-minute lead on the bunch. Quick Step worked particularly hard to bring them back.
Meanwhile, Italian Paolo Bettini did his best to get away, taking part in a number of attacks, but nothing would stick and there was a general regrouping within 13km of the finish, with a massive field sprint seeming likely.
But Nuyens had other plans. He leapt away with 5km to go, followed by Frenchman Christophe Mengin (Fdjeux.com) and the Netherlander Stefan Van Dijck (Lotto). Two kilometers later, Nuyens attacked once more and was gone for good.
"All day, I worked for Bettini,” Nuyens said. “But when our leader did not appear to be among the possible winners, I could play my own card. At the end, most of the peloton was cooked, but I still had some reserves.”
Paris-Brussels1. Nick Nuyens (B), Quick Step-Davitamon, 225km in 4:59:00
2. Philippe Gilbert (B), Fdjeux.com, at 0:01
3. Allan Johansen (Den), BankGiroLoterij, at 0:02
4. Jeremy Hunt (GB), MrBookmaker.com, at 0:04
5. Paolo Bettini (I), Quick Step-Davitamon, at 0:10
