2011 Tour of Belgium

25 May 2011 – Buggenhout (Belgium), 5.6 km (3.5 mi)

With only 7 turns in the course, the short prologue in Buggenhout was not technical and favored more powerful riders. One of these riders is André Greipel, who set the first strong mark at 6' 45" as one of the first riders. Surprisingly, the first rider to beat his time was his young teammate Jens Debusschere, who stayed in the lead for quite a long time. Eventually Sebastian Langeveld beat the time of Debusschere and from that point on, with the winds turning, a few more riders managed to come close to the time of Langeveld. Eventually Langevelds compatriot Lieuwe Westra beat his time by a mere four seconds to take the stage win and the first black jersey. The Belgian spectators were delighted to see Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert riding good times, both finishing in the top 10 after a period of absence following the spring classics.[1]

Prologue Result and General Classification after Prologue Rider Team Time 1  Lieuwe Westra (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM 6' 37" 2  Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto + 1" 3  Dominique Cornu (BEL) Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator + 2" 4  Sebastian Langeveld (NED) Rabobank + 4" 5  Maarten Wynants (BEL) Rabobank + 7" 6  Jens Debusschere (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto + 7" 7  Cyril Lemoine (FRA) Saur–Sojasun + 8" 8  Tom Boonen (BEL) Quick-Step + 8" 9  André Greipel (GER) Omega Pharma–Lotto + 9" 10  Jens Keukeleire (BEL) Cofidis + 9"

26 May 2011 – Lochristi (Belgium) to Knokke-Heist (Belgium), 162.5 km (101.0 mi)

The stage started with one minute of silence in remembrance of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt, a former stage winner during the Tour of Belgium who died two weeks earlier as a result of a crash during the 2011 Giro d'Italia.

With around 60 kilometres to go and strong winds picking up as the peloton got closer to the North Sea, the Quick-Step team pulled the peloton apart by using the drafting technique, as such creating an elite group. Notable absentees in this group were leader in the race Lieuwe Westra, two time Tour of Belgium winner Stijn Devolder and classics specialist Filippo Pozzato who would finish several minutes back in one of the dropped groups. The elite group sprinted for the victory in Knokke-Heist, with André Greipel taking the stage win and due to the bonification seconds he also became the new leader.[2]

Stage 1 result Rider Team Time 1  André Greipel (GER) Omega Pharma–Lotto 3h 38' 14" 2  Kenny van Hummel (NED) Skil–Shimano s.t. 3  Maxime Vantomme (BEL) Team Katusha s.t. 4  Tom Boonen (BEL) Quick-Step s.t. 5  Nikolay Trusov (RUS) Team Katusha s.t. 6  Pim Ligthart (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM s.t. 7  Allan Davis (AUS) Astana s.t. 8  Maarten Wynants (BEL) Rabobank s.t. 9  Michael Van Staeyen (BEL) Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator s.t. 10  Aidis Kruopis (LTU) Landbouwkrediet s.t.

General Classification after Stage 1 Rider Team Time 1  André Greipel (GER) Omega Pharma–Lotto 3h 44' 49" 2  Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto + 2" 3  Dominique Cornu (BEL) Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator + 3" 4  Maarten Wynants (BEL) Rabobank + 8" 5  Tom Boonen (BEL) Quick-Step s.t. 6  Jens Keukeleire (BEL) Cofidis + 10" 7  Sebastian Langeveld (NED) Rabobank s.t. 8  Pim Ligthart (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 13" 9  John Murphy (USA) BMC Racing Team s.t. 10  Jens Debusschere (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto + 14"

27 May 2011 – Knokke-Heist (Belgium) to Ypres (Belgium), 187.8 km (116.7 mi)

Just a few kilometres into the stage, five riders broke away from the peloton: Koen Barbé, Marcus Burghardt, Niko Eeckhout, Jens Mouris and Luca Paolini. The breakaway group got a lead of up to four minutes, but was caught just after the second climb of the Kemmelberg by Philippe Gilbert. Soon after, about 20 other riders also closed the gap, while Gilbert had managed to win the last intermediate sprint of the day, which gave him enough time bonus to overtake his teammate André Greipel in the standings. The lead group increased to almost 60 riders and with the finish line coming closer it was hard for anyone to get away from the pack. A late solo breakaway by Jelle Wallays was ended just 2 kilometres from the finish and the group sprinted for the stage win. In the sprint, Tom Boonen and Allan Davis came up strongly to the front but faded early, allowing Aidis Kruopis to overtake them in the final metres and book the biggest win of his young career. André Greipel lost both the black jersey for the overall lead and the yellow jersey of the points classification, respectively to Philippe Gilbert and Tom Boonen.[3]

Stage 2 result Rider Team Time 1  Aidis Kruopis (LTU) Landbouwkrediet 4h 21' 41" 2  Stefan van Dijk (NED) Veranda's Willems–Accent s.t. 3  Pim Ligthart (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM s.t. 4  Allan Davis (AUS) Astana s.t. 5  Pieter Ghyllebert (BEL) An Post–Sean Kelly s.t. 6  Maxime Vantomme (BEL) Team Katusha s.t. 7  Tom Boonen (BEL) Quick-Step s.t. 8  Tom Meeusen (BEL) Telenet–Fidea s.t. 9  Rafaâ Chtioui (TUN) Acqua & Sapone s.t. 10  Maarten Wynants (BEL) Rabobank s.t.

General Classification after Stage 2 Rider Team Time 1  Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto 8h 06' 29" 2  André Greipel (GER) Omega Pharma–Lotto + 1" 3  Dominique Cornu (BEL) Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator + 4" 4  Maarten Wynants (BEL) Rabobank + 9" 5  Pim Ligthart (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 10" 6  Tom Boonen (BEL) Quick-Step + 11" 7  Jens Keukeleire (BEL) Cofidis + 11" 8  Sebastian Langeveld (NED) Rabobank + 14" 9  Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) BMC Racing Team + 16" 10  Cyril Lemoine (FRA) Saur–Sojasun + 17"

28 May 2011 – Bertem (Belgium) to Eupen (Belgium), 202 km (126 mi)

Stage 3 result Rider Team Time 1  Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto 4h 50' 47" 2  Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) BMC Racing Team s.t. 3  Björn Leukemans (BEL) Vacansoleil–DCM s.t. 4  Bert De Waele (BEL) Landbouwkrediet + 7" 5  Egor Silin (RUS) Team Katusha + 21" 6  Joost van Leijen (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 46" 7  Niki Terpstra (NED) Quick-Step + 48" 8  Sébastien Joly (FRA) Saur–Sojasun + 50" 9  Enrico Gasparotto (ITA) Astana + 53" 10  Pim Ligthart (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 56"

General Classification after Stage 3 Rider Team Time 1  Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto 12h 57' 04" 2  Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) BMC Racing Team + 19" 3  Björn Leukemans (BEL) Vacansoleil–DCM + 35" 4  Bert De Waele (BEL) Landbouwkrediet + 1' 02" 5  Niki Terpstra (NED) Quick-Step + 1' 18" 6  Pim Ligthart (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 1' 18" 7  Maarten Wynants (BEL) Rabobank + 1' 20" 8  Joost van Leijen (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 1' 28" 9  Jens Keukeleire (BEL) Cofidis + 3' 11" 10  Maxime Vantomme (BEL) Team Katusha + 3' 25"

29 May 2011 – Oreye (Belgium) to Putte (Belgium), 169.4 km (105.3 mi)

Stage 4 result Rider Team Time 1  André Greipel (GER) Omega Pharma–Lotto 3h 51' 43" 2  Aidis Kruopis (LTU) Landbouwkrediet s.t. 3  Luca Paolini (ITA) Team Katusha s.t. 4  Adrien Petit (FRA) Cofidis s.t. 5  Allan Davis (AUS) Astana s.t. 6  Michael Van Staeyen (BEL) Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator s.t. 7  Stefan van Dijk (NED) Veranda's Willems–Accent s.t. 8  Tom Meeusen (BEL) Telenet–Fidea s.t. 9  Pieter Vanspeybrouck (BEL) Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator s.t. 10  Olivier Pardini (BEL) Wallonie Bruxelles–Crédit Agricole s.t.

General Classification after Stage 4 Rider Team Time 1  Philippe Gilbert (BEL) Omega Pharma–Lotto 16h 48' 46" 2  Greg Van Avermaet (BEL) BMC Racing Team + 20" 3  Björn Leukemans (BEL) Vacansoleil–DCM + 36" 4  Bert De Waele (BEL) Landbouwkrediet + 1' 03" 5  Pim Ligthart (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 1' 16" 6  Niki Terpstra (NED) Quick-Step + 1' 19" 7  Maarten Wynants (BEL) Rabobank + 1' 21" 8  Joost van Leijen (NED) Vacansoleil–DCM + 1' 29" 9  Jens Keukeleire (BEL) Cofidis + 3' 12" 10  Maxime Vantomme (BEL) Team Katusha + 3' 26"