Farrar wins Dutch prologue
- By Andrew Hood
- Published Jun. 12, 2009
- Updated Jun. 14, 2009 at 11:31 AM UTC
Tyler Farrar is back in the winner’s circle Friday after claiming an impressive victory in the prologue of the Delta Tour Zeeland in Holland.
The Garmin-Slipstream rider put his sprinter legs to good use on a short, 2.7km course in Hulst to open the three-day race in Holland, posting the fastest time of 3 minutes, 8.29 seconds (51.622kph).
The blistering pace meant another win for Farrar, who has shown in the past he can put down a good prologue performance.
Finishing second by 2.57 seconds off the pace was Michael Elijzen (Silence-Lotto) with Rick Flens (Dutch team) slotting into third at 2.58 seconds slower. Dutch track star Theo Bos (Rabobank) was ninth at 4.45 seconds slower and Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) was 15th at 5.98 seconds.
With the victory, Farrar will carry the leader’s jersey in the 181.7km first stage from Middleburg to Goes.
The race concludes Sunday with the 185.9km second stage starting and finishing in Terneuzen.
The victory bodes well for Farrar, who is expected to get a nod to start the Tour de France next month.
Farrar – who turned 25 last week — performed well in his grand tour debut at the Giro d’Italia last month, notching three top-3 results in the sprints.
The win is Farrar’s second on the 2009 season. He beat Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) in a sprint in the third stage of Tirreno-Adriatico in March.
Andrew Hood
Hood cut his journalistic teeth at Colorado dailies before the web boom opened the door to European cycling in the mid-1990s. Hood's covered every Tour since 1996 and has been VeloNews' European correspondent since 2002. He lives in Leon, Spain, when he's not chasing bike races.