Tour of Denmark Stage 4
Today's first split stage in the Tour of Denmark was Stage
4 between Fredericia and Odense 98km, was a completely
flat but windy stage.
Traditionally this stage is very quiet as most of the race favourites are very tense and looking forward to this evening time trial, and today was certainly no exception, the stage was marked by a long escape by Glenn Bak (Danish National Team), Elio Aggiano (Mapei), Lukas Zumsteg (Phonak), Nico Eeckhout(Lotto), Thomas Voeckler (Bonjour), who went away after
5 kilometres. At the 10km mark they were joined by
German Volker Ordowski, (Gerolsteiner) and Dutch Coen
Boerman (Rabobank). The bunch had no intentions of
burning much powder before the evening's time trial,
and was being controlled by CSC-Tiscali protecting
race leader Jacob Pill and the French AG2R team.
At the 50km mark the escapers had a healthy lead of
about 3min. With 25km to go there were a lot of attacks
in the front group but all were promptly closed. The
pack was still rolling along with CSC-Tiscali and Ag2R
sitting at the front, dictating a pace that kept the
escapers just under 3 minutes. With 5 km to go the
breakaway group starting to look a bit shaky and with
lead being minimised heavily, and down to under 1 min, the
tactical play started to go along.
Young Dane Glenn Bak would have none of that and with 2km tried to jump away quickly. Italian Elio Aggiano went after and caught him, eventually dropping him and easing his way
to his second win of the season. The pack came close
and caught all of the other breakaway riders except
the winning Mapei rider. The sprint for second place
was taken by German sprinter Olaf Pollack
(Gerolsteiner) who beat another German, Danilo Hondo, in
the bunch sprint for season place.
Stage 4 Results
1. Elio Aggiano (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step @ 2h 06' 54"
2. Olaf Pollack (Ger) Gerolsteiner @ 5"
3. Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Telekom @ 5"
4. Alexandre Usov (Rus) Phonak @ 5"
5. Lars Michaelsen (Den) Team Coast @ 5"
6. Stefan Van Dijck (Hol) Lotto-Adecco @ 5"
7. Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor) EDS-Fakta @ 5"
8. Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) AG2r-Prevoyance @ 5"
9. Janek Tombak (Est) Cofidis @ 5"
10. Sven Teutenberg (Ger) Phonak @ 5"
....
13. Jakob Storm Piil (Den) CSC-Tiscali @ 5"
26. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Mapei-Quick Step @ 5"
30. Tyler Hamilton (USA) CSC-Tiscali @ 5"
GC after Stage 4
1. Jakob Storm Piil (Den) CSC-Tiscali @ 13h 25' 47"
2. Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor) EDS-Fakta @ 1' 15"
3. Stefan Van Dijck (Hol) Lotto-Adecco @ 2' 18"
4. Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Telekom @ 2' 22"
5. Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) AG2r-Prevoyance @ 2' 22"
6. Olaf Pollack (Ger) Gerolsteiner @ 2' 22"
7. Alexandre Usov (Rus) Phonak @ 2' 23"
8. Emmanuel Magnien (Fra) Bonjour @ 2' 24"
9. Andrea Tafi (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step @ 2' 25"
10. Frank Høj (Den) Team Coast @ 2' 27"
11. Allan Johansen (Den) EDS-Fakta @ 2' 27"
12. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Mapei-Quick Step @ 2' 28"
....
19. Tyler Hamilton (USA) CSC-Tiscali @ 2' 28"
Stage 5 Report
This evening's 16 kilometre Individual Time Trial went away at 18.00 pm when young Dane Glenn Bak (Danish National Team) went out
on the flat and rolling course; however it was the big
experienced German Rolf Aldag (Team Telekom) who clocked
the fastest time at the first time check, 9sec ahead
of Jørgen Bo Petersen (Team Fakta) and Marcus
Ljungqvist (Team Fatka).
R. Aldag's time didn't stand that long as his team-mate, 27 year old German time trail specialist Roberto Bartko, went under the halfway mark 19 sec ahead of his teammate and was looking very comfortable at this point of the stage. Just as R. Bratko's time was looking hard to beat, Tyler Hamilton (CSC-Tiscali) smashed through in a time of 09.32, 5 seconds quicker than the German.
The biggest favorite for this stage the Hungry Hungarian Laszlo Bodrogi went through the time split 4 sec behind the American but looked like the only one who could threaten the Tiscali rider. In the mean time, Roberto Bartko arrived at the finish line just beating another Tempo specialist young Swiss Mapei rider Fabian Cancellara by a mere 3sec in the time of 0h19'28".
Tyler Hamilton was however very content with fighting for the stage victory and hammered the last 200 meters before crossing the finish line with a clear new best time of 0h19'14" 14sec faster than Roberto Bartko, and with only one major threat behind him, looked good in achieve his 3rd win of the season. Unfortunately for the American, Mr. L.Bodrogi isn't just anybody and he just edged the American by 1 sec to
take his 3rd time trial win this year.
Race leader Jacob Storm Piil (CSC-Tiscali) rode a strong time trail for his standards ending at a solid 11th place. Without any accidents, he will roll in to Copenhagen tomorrow to be crowned as winner as the 2002 edition of the Tour Of Denmark ahead of Norwegian champion Kurt-Asle Arvesen
(Team Fakta) and today's Stage winner Laszlo Bodrogi
(Mapei), who rode himself onto the podium with today's
great ride. Tomorrow is this year's last stage of the Tour of Denmark, and finishes with a flat 164 km stage between
Slagelse - Frederiksberg, ending on Denmark's answer
to the Champs Elyssés, Frederiksberg Allé.
Stage 5 (ITT) Results
1 Laszlo Bodrogi MAP 0h19'13"
2 Tyler Hamilton CST USA 00'01"
3 Jann Kirsipuu AG2R Estland 00'14"
4 Robert Bartko TEL Tyskland 00'15"
5 Fabian Cancellara MAP Schweiz 00'18"
6 Olaf Pollack GST Tyskland 00'20"
7 René Haselbacher GST Østrig
00'22"
8 Rolf Aldag TEL Tyskland 00'32"
9 Lennie Kristensen FAK Danmark 00'37"
10 Kurt-Asle Arvesen FAK Norge 00'40"
11 Jakob Storm Piil CST Danmark 00'43"
12 Sylvain Chavanel BJT Frankrig 00'43
GC After Stage 5 ITT
1 Jakob Storm Piil CST Danmark 15h52'42"
2 Kurt-Asle Arvesen FAK Norge 01'12"
3 Laszlo Bodrogi MAP 01'45"
4 Tyler Hamilton CST USA 01'46"
5 Jann Kirsipuu AG2R Estland 01'53"
6 Olaf Pollack GST Tyskland 01'59"
7 Robert Bartko TEL Tyskland 02'00"
8 René Haselbacher GST Østrig 02'07"
9 Sylvain Chavanel BJT Frankrig 02'28"
10 Frank Høj COA Danmark 02'37"
11 Danilo Hondo TEL Tyskland 02'38
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