BMC Racing Team's Klaas Lodewyck sprinted to his second top 10 finish of the Tour de Beijing with seventh place on Friday's penultimate stage of the five-day race.
Worked Well As A Team
Tenth on Tuesday's opening stage, Lodewyck said he was a bit disappointed he didn't get a better result in the 165.5-kilometer race that ended in another bunch sprint. "First Martin Kohler and then Taylor Phinney brought me into good position and I was on the wheel of (Alessandro) Petacchi," Lodewyck said. "But there were two meters in between us and the guy who won, Marco Haller (Katusha Team), came into it. So I lost two or three meters. If I'm immediately in the wheel of Petacchi, I'm going to make a good result and maybe win." Phinney said just about everything went the way it was drawn up in the team's pre-race meeting. "I made sure Klaas was on my wheel and kept him protected," the world time trial silver medalist said. "With 500 meters to go, I brought him up next to the Lampre sprint train and Petacchi saw me and started to sprint. I don't think Klaas quite had the pop to match those guys, but we were up there and I was satisfied that we worked well together as a team." Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) finished second and Stage 1 winner Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) was third as Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) kept the overall lead.
Click here to listen to complete comments from Lodewyck and Phinney on the BMC Racing Team AudioLine.