Polka dot jersey for Belohvosciks
But, close on his heels, it was Letton Belohvosciks who decided to give the pack the slip, riding the longest breakaway of the day. In all, he raced nearly a hundred kilometres solo, and – in passing – won the polka dot jersey for taking four slopes in the lead, and an intermediate sprint that earned him a bonus of three seconds.

Puncture for Boonen
Split up for a long time into three groups (a “yellow jersey”, a “Vinokourov” and a “Grupetto”), the gaps closed around thirty kilometres from the finish – the moment for all teams to prepare the tough showdown for their own in-house sprinter. With Quick Step, all eyes were on Tom Boonen, winner of a stage in the Tour du Qatar and the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne this season. But a blow-out ruined his hopes of victory in the “Venise du Gâtinais”. Then the Italian Michele Bartoli proved most enterprising in the “Flamme Rouge” stage.

But, knowing it would be tricky to get ahead of his rivals in a hard-line sprint, Pedro Horrillo – the Quick Step bolt-from-the-blue – rose to the occasion with brio, focussing all his powers and skills as a big finisher to shoot forward around 300 metres from the finish. This surge was enough to keep back the Swiss Zberg and the Italian Bartoli, who took 2nd and 3rd place on the podium after Horrillo. But that, of course, is no threat to Jacksche’s yellow and white jersey, which stayed well hidden throughout the stage in the first group of pursuers.

Pedro Horrillo

Did you ever imagine you’d win a stage that ought to work best for really fast sprinters?
No, it wasn’t expected at all. This morning, we decided to ride the race to prepare Tom Boonen’s final sprint. It made good sense, because he’s the best sprinter in our team. Unfortunately, he had a puncture in the final kilometres and from that moment on he lost his will to win. So I decided to try my luck. I was feeling good and it all worked out. I’m really delighted.

You chose to break forward a few hundred metres from the line...
I knew I was in with a chance and I had to find a way of getting ahead of the sprinting specialists, so I couldn’t just wait until the last moment. I was once in a similar situation two years ago on the Tour de France, at the Avranches stage, and because I waited too long I didn’t succeed in winning (finishing 3rd after McGee and Kirsipuu). This time, I didn’t want that to happen again, so I took a risk in breaking forward but in the end it turned out to be the right choice.

Does this stage win fire you with new ambition for the Paris-Nice?
As a matter of fact, I didn’t even think I’d win a stage! Now I’m going to try and do my utmost, and with the rest of the team we’ll work out exactly what my role’s going to be through to the end of the week.