Key moments

Doing The Quickstep: First & Second For Steegmans & Boonen

A dramatic crash with two kilometers upset what was otherwise the perfect sprint to conclude the second stage of the 2007 Tour de France. In the end, it was an elite group of sprinters who chased victory in Gent with the local Quickstep-Innergetic squad reaping the biggest reward: Gert Steegmans first, Tom Boonen second. It was a dramatic end to a day which was designed for the speed specialists but a result few would have predicted. “If you get the chance to give a gift to a team-mate,” said the runner-up, “you take that chance.
“All year he does the work for me,” insisted Boonen. “I wasn’t going to pass him on the line and rob him of his chance of glory. It’s the perfect end for our team.”

The 168.5km second stage of the 2007 Tour de France – from Dunkerque to Gent in Belgium – began at 1.25pm. There were 188 riders in the peloton. There were no climbs on the course so Millar (SDV) was assured of maintaining his lead in the climbing classification. Three intermediate sprints offered points for the green jersey classification. The sprints were in Boezinge at the 45km mark, Westende (81.5km) and Aarsele (140.5km).

Sieberg Instigates First Attack
There were no early escape attempts. The first surge was from Sieberg (MRM) at the 18km mark. He was joined by Perez (EUS) and Herve (AGR). By 21km they built a lead of 45”; 2’40” at the 37km mark. The CSC team was in charge of the peloton and, at the site of the first intermediate sprint its deficit was 2’05” – the points were won by Herve, Perez and Sieberg. The average speed for the first hour was 45.5km/h. At the 65km mark, the trio reached a maximum advantage of 5’55”. At the second intermediate sprint the points were won by Sieberg, Herve and Perez. The peloton was 4’30” behind. The average speed for the second hour was 46.3km/h.

Papa Kashechkin
While Andrey Kashechkin was racing for the Astana team in the Tour, his wife gave birth to a 3.2kg baby boy called David during the first hour of stage two.

Setting Up The Sprint…
The CSC team controlled the peloton until the 100km mark. With 63km to go, the advantage of the leading trio had dropped to 2’50”. Rain fell on the race for a brief period but it wasn’t severe and no bad accidents happened because of the wet roads (although Frank Schleck did crash with about in Pittem, at the 127km mark). With 45km to go, the CSC team was joined at the head of the peloton by the Quickstep and Liquigas teams. Shortly afterwards two riders from both Preditor-Lotto and Credit Agricole tapped out the tempo at the head of the peloton.
Perez led Herve and Sieberg over the intermediate sprint line in Aarsele. The skies opened and rain poured on the peloton with 25km to go. Vansummeren (PRL), Tankink (QSI) and Charteau (C.A) lead the peloton’s pursuit and pulled the advantage back to 2’05”. The bunch was pragmatic with its pursuit: at 20km to go - 1’50”; 15km to go – 1’15”; 10km to go – 40”; 5km to go… just 12”. Perez attacked with 5km to go but it didn’t matter. The escape was over with 2.8km to go and then the sprinters’ squads took control.

Huge Pile-Up Hinders Hopes
With two kilometers remaining it appeared as though a Milram rider pulled his foot out of his pedal. On a narrow section of road, his slight swerve to the right caught the wheel of another rider. At that pace there’s no room for error and the result was a crash that involved up to 10 riders. Fabian Cancellara was one man caught up but he admitted that he wasn’t badly hurt “but at the time, when you have two kilometers to ride to the line, you have time to think that everything is in pain.”

Steegmans & Boonen Do The Quickstep!
A selection of about 25 riders escaped the carnage including most of the big-name sprinters. The Quickstep team had at least four representatives in the lead group rushing to the line. While other sprinters jostle for position, Gert Steegmans bolted ahead as part of what was meant to be a lead-out for Tom Boonen. Unsure that it was his colleague behind him, Steegmans insisted with his effort all the way to the line, taking a surprise win while Boonen’s second was enough to put him in the lead of the points classification.
Cancellara finished 72nd but retained his lead in the general classification and will wear the yellow jersey again in stage three.

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Tom Boonen - "A Beautiful Sprint!"

There was one man that the Flemish crowds wanted to win more than anyone else in Gent. Tom Boonen is adored in this part of the world but the opportunity arose for him to follow a colleague of the line. The former world champion confessed that he couldn’t have beaten Gert Steegmans in the sprint nor did he try too hard. One Quickstep rider got the stage win, another was the runner-up and now leads the points classification.

“A one-two result isn’t something that happens very often. That happens usually only when you prepare a sprint in a way that’s impossible. It means that you must have a lot in reserve to be able to have one guy who does the sprint the same way as the designated sprinter does. It’s only possible a few times in a career.
“Today it wasn’t possible for me to pass my team-mate but I think that if you’re in a situation like this then it’s the right thing to do to… if you have a guy who leads you out for the entire year and you’re able to give a present like this, then it’s not nice to pass him.
“I’m more excited than when I won the stage myself. It’s great to achieve this when the finish line is in your own country. It was an impressive day for our team.
“I was freezing with 40km to go. I couldn’t see anymore because my glasses were dirty and I don’t like it when I get cold but finally it dried out and it was lucky that it happened that way for the sprint because it was very dangerous. There were so many people that you couldn’t ride where you wanted because the spectators were spilling onto the road and you had to be careful. There was the crash but we did our best to make a beautiful sprint and that’s what we got.”

Fabian Cancellara - "Everything is intensified..."

The yellow jersey remains on the shoulders of Fabian Cancellara but the Swiss rider had a scare at the end of stage two when he was caught up in a crash just two kilometers from the finish. He limped home holding his left arm off the handlebars but he admitted that his injuries were not as bad as he first thought...

“It’s normal when you fall that you feel pain. It’s what your instincts tell you. But I’ll have a massage and my body therapist will take a good look and make sure I’m okay. There’s nothing that seems too bad at the moment; I had a little pain but that’s normal. Your heart is racing and everything is intensified. When you have two kilometers to ride to the finish, you feel it more – it’s the release of tension that’s built up.
“It’s always difficult in the final kilometers but today it was very dangerous because there were so many spectators. It’s much more extreme than during the Classics.”

Gert Steegmans – “Explosion Of Emotion!”

The Quickstep team was determined to make an impression in the city where its based. But not even the man who won expected what happened in Gent at the end of stage two: Gert Steegmans wasn’t sure who was closing in on him as the line approached but when he realized it was Tom Boonen right behind him, it was an "explosion of emotion" in the mind of the domestique who became a Tour stage winner today.

“The team did the perfect lead-out and it ended in an ideal situation. We said before the stage that we wanted to do the lead-out as late as possible. If we could, I was only allowed to start my acceleration at 300m to go but Steven De Jongh pulled a bit longer than I expected and I could ride my own sprint. The only one who was following me was Tom.
“He almost came past me but you can never really be sure who is behind you. I saw the footage of the finish and it was good to see Zabel dropping off when I was moving forward. That’s really nice.
“I didn’t see the crash and I didn’t even know about it. There were so many people and there was so much noise in the last two and a half kilometers that I couldn’t hear anything. Maybe they were talking on the radio and saying something about the crash but I never heard anything. It’s always great to have a victory in the Tour but to do it in Belgium is like a dream!
“I knew I was winning but when I looked I saw a wheel coming through and I thought that maybe it was someone else but when I saw it was Tom it was an explosion of emotion in my mind.
“Last year a few guys told me that it was a bad choice to go to Quickstep because I would never be able to win but it’s happened today, so I don’t think that I made a bad move.”

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