Emotional Reus takes comeback victory

13.09.2009

A highly emotional Kai Reus put in a strong ride to take victory and the Yellow Jersey on the banks of the River Tyne, holding off a charging peloton who came within seconds of catching the Flying Dutchman on the line. The peloton swept into NewcastleGateshead, powered by a tail wind, as they struggled to recapture Reus, the last remaining rider from a daylong breakaway, but the Rabobank rider held on to take his first victory since suffering a life threatening head injury while training in the French Alps in July 2007.

Reus rolled across the line nine seconds ahead of the peloton, led home by a brace of Norwegians in Alexander Kristoff and Edvald Boasson Hagen, with Stage One winner Chris Sutton back in ninth, losing his leader’s jersey.

A frantic first hour of racing had seen several groups try to establish a lead at the head of the race, but each time the peloton pulled them back, with Nicolas Roche one of several riders who repeatedly tried to escape the clutches of the main field.

In fact it wasn’t until nearly 40 kilometres into the stage that a breakaway stuck, with one of Stage One’s starring riders Thomas De Gendt again going on the attack, as he had promised he would do.

Estonian Tanel Kangert of the French Ag2r La Mondiale team joined the Topsport Vlaanderen rider and the pair quickly built a gap going onto the day’s second King of the Mountains climb at Langley. On the climb Reus made his first big effort of the day to bridge the gap and make the leading group a trio.

For a while the break struggled to make the move hold, but gradually the pressured eased and the threesome could begin building their lead, which at it’s maximum reached just over five and a half minutes.

The Belgian youngster used his second day at the front of the race to his advantage, taking over the lead in the King of the Mountains competition, while further tightening his grip on the Sprints Jersey.

At the head of the peloton, once Garmin and Barloworld began putting in a serious effort, stringing out the race, the lead of the escapee soon began to come down, and despite a crash briefly hampering the efforts of the main field, the lead was steadily slashed.

By Belsay the gap was four and a half minutes, with Chris Froome and Mauricio Soler putting in a lot of work on the front to further reduce the deficit. Less than 20 kilometres later at Bedlington the lead was hovering around the minute mark, with Kangert being the first to cry enough.

Exiting the town the 22-year-old, who has missed most of the 2009 season with a serious knee injury, momentarily lost contact with his two companions prompting him to decide that his day was over and he’d await the arrival of the peloton.

Reus and De Gendt forged on alone and when Garmin eased off their advantage rapidly rose to over two minutes giving them renewed hope of making the finish. But for the Belgian it wasn’t to be, as coming off a roundabout in Tynemouth with just over 10 kilometres to go he couldn’t hold Reus’ wheel and soon the Rabobank rider had a rapidly increasing gap.

De Gendt tried to carry on, but on the wide, exposed dual carriageway there was no where to hide, and just as steadily as Reus pulled away, the peloton closed in. With Team Director Erik Dekker regularly pulling alongside to offer encouragement, Reus continued his lonely pursuit, sweeping through crowds on the streets of Newcastle while the peloton rapidly closed in.

At four kilometres to go the Dutchman had one-minute advantage on the Garmin lead main field who were charging hard in an effort to keep Sutton in yellow for another evening. But their efforts failed, as sweeping between the crowds and over the swing bridge across the Tyne, Reus could savour his moment, lifting his arms aloft and taking the applause of the waiting spectators.

Behind the bunch crossed the stripe having timed their pursuit ever so slightly wrong, with Kristoff denied the win by just nine seconds. Barloworld’s Michele Merlo finished sixth to ensure that, in addition to losing his yellow jersey, Sutton also lost his Prostate Cancer Charity Points Jersey, with the latter going to the Italian.

Speaking afterwards, an emotional Kai Reus struggled for words, fighting back tears as he said, “It’s my first victory in two years, but it’s a long story…. It was a really hard last ten kilometres for me, maybe for the peloton also.”

After admitting that right down until the final few hundred he still wasn’t sure he would win, Reus stressed that he hadn’t deliberately shed his breakaway companion on the run in to Newcastle.

“No, it wasn’t an attack! We ride hard, very hard. But then he lost my wheel, so I just put my head down and went, no waiting.”

On the prospects of keeping one of his jerseys, Thomas De Gendt was reluctant to comment, but did confess with regards to the King of the Mountains that, “Maybe I can keep the jersey for two or three days longer, or maybe to the end, I’m going to try.

“I think I’m going to stay in the peloton tomorrow because my legs are very tired. The team say I had to stay still but I saw someone attack and I jumped with him, it wasn’t intended.”

De Gendt, who has now spent nearly 300 kilometres in breakaways in just two stages then clarified his earlier comment looking ahead to Scotland and Stage Three, saying, “If I see someone attack, I’ll go with them!”

Local rider Chris Newton of the Rapha – Condor team attempted to escape early on in the stage, on roads close to his native Stockton-on-Tees, but to no avail, commenting post-stage that, “I attacked early on, to see if there was a move would go and eventually got away with two others, Nicolas Roche and a guy from Agritubel.  But Roche was absolutely caning it, doing more damage to the group than was necessary, jumping us every time he went through so you couldn’t really get his wheel instead of trying to be a bit more conservative.  So we eventually got caught and I suffered a bit for that because the race was on then.

“We talked about doing something on the run in, maybe just trying to jump away in the last three kilometres because I knew it dipped down a bit, but at 65 kilometres an hour in the peloton there’s not really room for manoeuvre.”

Reus wouldn’t be drawn further on the fateful July day two year’s ago that nearly ended not only his career but his life, but victory in NewcastleGateshead seems to suggest that the former World Under 19 Road Race champion does still have a bright future in the sport.

That future for now is yellow, but Reus, who only came into the Rabobank roster for The Tour of Britain as a late replacement for the injured Stef Clement, admitted that he didn’t know how he would go for the remainder of race, saying, “I think Stages Six and Seven are very hard, so maybe I feel good today but now my legs are spent.”

For full results of Stage Two from Darlington to NewcastleGateshead, please click on the results section of the website.