Eneco Tour 2015 stage 7: Quinziato wins at cobbled Wall, overall win Wellens

The closing stage of the Eneco Tour is a kind of Tour of Flanders with 17 hills. Manuel Quinziato is in the early break and he proves to be strongest. He attacks with 5 kilometres left and soloes to victory at the Wall of Geraardsbergen. Leader Tim Wellens and his team Lotto Soudal control the race with ease and the back to back overall win of the young Flemish rider at Eneco is not endangered. Strong performance! (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 7th stage Eneco Tour

1. Manuel Quinziato (ita)
2. Björn Leukemans (bel) + 0.03
3. Yves Lampaert (bel) + 0.08
4. Greg Van Avermaet (bel) + 0.38
5. Julian Alaphilippe (fra) s.t.
6. Tiesj Benoot (bel) + 0.40
7. Filippo Pozzato (ita) s.t.
8. Jan Bakelants (bel) + 0.42
9. Philippe Gilbert (bel) s.t.
10. Magnus Cort (bel) s.t.

GC after stage 7
1. Tim Wellens (bel)
2. Greg Van Avermaet (bel) + 0.59
3. Wilco Kelderman (nld) + 1.17
4. Philippe Gilbert (bel) + 1.40
5. Fabio Felline (ita) + 1.48
6. Andrei Grivko (kaz) + 1.54
7. Michael Rogers (aus) + 2.02
8. Tiesj Benoot (bel) + 2.11
9. Christopher Juul Jensen (den) s.t.
10. Julian Alaphilippe (fra) s.t.

Race report
Fourteen riders are in the break of the day. Moreno Hofland, Dylan Groenewegen, Tim Kerkhof, Björn Leukemans, Yves Lampaert, Manuel Quinziato, Marco Coledan, Rudiger Selig, Roberto Ferrari, Adam Blythe, Kristijan Koren, Nico Denz, Jans Roy and Georg Preidler race to a maximum advantage of 4 minutes. Then the pack takes control and brings the gap down to 2 minutes.

While climbing the Wall for the first time the front group explodes with only Quinziato, Leukemans and Lampaert remaining upfront. In the peloton Devenyns, Valgren-Andersen and Geschke attack and they pick up the dropped rider Jans, while Démare, Hoogerland, Van Hoecke and Vandenbergh hook up. A while later Démare and Jans are dropped and the other chasers are caught by the pack with 14 km’s left.

The front group widens the gap to 3 minutes and then it gradually goes down. With 1 minute gain left, Quinziato attacks at 5 km’s before the finish line. He pushes hard and soloes to the win.

Voila, today’s route