February 26, 2012 (Kuurne, BEL) – Team SpiderTech was back in action today in yet another semi-classic race in Belgium, and the team’s overall performance, led by sprinter Guillaume Boivin, is showing that it has the strength to race amongst the world’s best teams, in the world’s biggest races.

Held every last Sunday of February, the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne semi-classic race in Belgium is another marquee event on the international road race calendar.

With World Champion sprinter Mark Cavendish being hailed as the favorite heading into the race, it was expected that this race would end up in a bunch sprint to the finish line. The Kuurne course is less selective than other Belgium classics, such as yesterday’s Omloop, and has always favored the sprinters.  With this in mind, Team SpiderTech brought its top sprinters to the start line: Guillaume Boivin, Keven Lacombe, Martin Gilbert and Hugo Houle.

The race saw a small lead group quickly breaking away to set the pace, while the peloton calmly rolled together. As the gap reached four minutes, the peloton broke in smaller group as the races hit the more challenging climbs in the mountains. A small chase group of 25 riders formed, while the peloton comprising top sprinters, stayed kept a good tempo to remain within safe distances of the lead group.

Once the chase group merged with the lead group, the peloton activated, led by Lotto-Belisol, Vacansoleil-DCM and Team Europcar, and managed to close the gap to less than a minute as the race entered the final circuit. With 10 kilometres left in the race, the two groups merged, and the sprinters moved up the peloton to prepare for the final kilometer of the race, which included Team SpiderTech’s Guillaume Boivin.

Boivin, who has established himself as a leader of Team SpiderTech this season after nursing a knee injury all last year, sprinted to the 11th position in the final bunch sprint, narrowly missing the Top-10 mark.

Steve Bauer, the team’s directeur sportif, was pleased to see his boys be competitive with this world-class field: “Today’s race lived up to expectations. It was a big sprint, with all the best guys. I don’t think anyone thought the breaks would go to the finish, despite the quality of the riders represented.”

“Our guys did great to have four guys in there in the final and three together inside the final km. I know the guys are disappointed. They wanted to do better in the sprint. But it doesn’t always work out the way you want. Every time the guys sprint at this level though, they learn. And they take those lessons forward to the next races.”

Mark Cavendish, one of the world’s to sprinter and current World Champion, went to take the victory in an easy sprint against Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-Big Mat) and Kenny Van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM). The victory for the British rider comes largely in part thanks to the hard work done by his teammates from Team Sky Pro Cycling, which executed a textbook race finale.

The next race for Team SpiderTech will be the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, a three-day stage race, part of the Flanders Classics series in Belgium.

Results (brief)

1. Mark CAVENDISH (GBR) Team Sky Pro Cycling
2. Yauheni HUTAROVICH (BLR) Française Des Jeux-Big Mat
3. Kenny Robert VAN HUMMEL (NED) Vacansoleil-DCM
4. Arnaud DEMARE (FRA) Française Des Jeux-Big Mat
5. Alexander SEREBRYAKOV (RUS) Team Type 1-Sanofi
6. Tom VEELERS (NED) Project 1t4i
7. Sébastien CHAVANEL (FRA) Team Europcar
8. Stefan VAN DIJCK (NED) Accent Jobs – Willems Veranda’s
9. Alexander KRISTOFF (NOR) Katusha
10. André GREIPEL (GER) Lotto-Belisol

TEAM SPIDERTECH RIDERS
11. Guillaume BOIVIN (Longueuil, QC)
30. Martin GILBERT (Châteauguay, QC)
43. Keven LACOMBE (Montréal, QC)
77. Hugo HOULE (Ste-Perpétue, QC)
DNF Zach BELL (North Vancouver, BC)
DNF David BOILY (Québec, QC)
DNF Pat McCARTY (Austin, TX)
DNS Simon LAMBERT-LEMAY (Ste-Ours, QC)