Andre Greipel failed to celebrate his birthday with a Tour de France stage win

Andre Greipel failed to celebrate his birthday with a Tour de France stage win

Andre Greipel of Team Lotto-Belisol was hoping to celebrate his 30^th birthday with a stage win during the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France.

The German rode brilliantly during the event but could not find the top of the podium as Pierrick Fedrigo of Team FDJ-Big Mat occupied the top spot.

Christian Vande Velde of Team Garmin-Sharp, Thomas Voeckler of Team Europcar and Nicki Sorensen of Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank secured the second, the third and the fourth positions respectively.

Greipel finished more than 11 minutes behind the race leader and had to settle for the 11^th overall position with his main rival Peter Sagan at the ninth spot.

He told dapd news agency, “It was impossible to control the field. There was nothing to do against Voeckler and co. I couldn’t expect my guys to sacrifice everything”.

“Suddenly Sky rested their legs and GreenEdge didn’t do anything either. I couldn’t understand that,” said Greipel’s teammate Marcel Sieberg.

“He is one of three ill riders on the team, and “we didn’t want to sacrifice all our strength”.

The row between Greipel and Team Orica-GreenEdge’s Matthew Goss became evident and the jury penalised Goss for obstructing the German.

“It is bitter to have all your chances for the green jersey taken away by such a decision,” Goss briefed.

The 30-year-old opened his 2012 winning account with a first place finish at the Cancer Council Helpline Classic and also secured the first overall spot at the Pro Race Berlin.

He bagged three stages and the point’s classifications at the Tour of Belgium along with three stage wins at the UCI Inaugural event, the Santos Tour Down Under.

Andre won two stages each at the Tour of Oman and the Tour de Luxembourg including a point’s classifications win at the race.

He bagged a stage each at the Tour of Turkey and the Ster ZLM Toer along with three stage victories at the Tour de France 2012.

Greipel is more than a 100 UCI points behind the race leader Peter Sagan and currently holds the second overall position after the stage 15 classifications.

Matthew Harley Goss of Team Orica-GreenEdge, Mark Cavendish and Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky Procycling holding the third, the fourth and the sixth positions respectively.

Posted by Ahmed Babar on Jul 13 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.