The 2012 Eneco Tour was the eighth running of the Eneco Tour cycling stage race. It started on August 6 in Waalwijk in the Netherlands and ended on August 12 in Geraardsbergen, Belgium, after seven stages. It was the 20th race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won by rider Lars Boom, who claimed the leader's white jersey on the final day after finishing second to rider Alessandro Ballan on the queen stage, and held enough of an advantage to assume the leader's jersey with his result. Boom's winning margin over runner-up Sylvain Chavanel of was 26 seconds, and his team-mate Niki Terpstra completed the podium, 23 seconds down on Chavanel and 49 behind Boom. rider Svein Tuft had originally finished third on the road, but was given a 20-second penalty for a water bottle infringement.
In the race's other classifications, 's Giacomo Nizzolo won the red jersey for the points classification, after winning a stage during the event, and Laurens De Vreese of won the "combativity" classification for most points awarded at each of the intermediate sprints during the event. Despite not winning a stage during the event, finished at the head of the teams classification, after placing three riders – Chavanel, Terpstra and Michał Kwiatkowski, who was eighth – in the top ten of the final general classification standings.
Schedule The race consisted of seven stages, including two time trial stages; one individual time trial in Ardooie, and a team time trial, in Sittard. Also included in the parcours for the first time was the Muur van Geraardsbergen, famous for its presence in the Tour of Flanders single-day race.
StageDateCourseDistanceTypeWinner16 August Waalwijk (Netherlands) to Middelburg (Netherlands) Flat stage 27 AugustSittard (Netherlands) to Sittard (Netherlands) Team time trial 38 August Riemst (Belgium) to Genk (Belgium) Flat stage 49 August Heers (Belgium) to Bergen op Zoom (Netherlands) Flat stage 510 August Hoogerheide (Netherlands) to Aalter (Belgium) Flat stage 611 August Ardooie (Belgium) to Ardooie (Belgium) Individual time trial 712 August Maldegem (Belgium) to Geraardsbergen (Belgium) Intermediate stage Total
Participating teams As the Eneco Tour was a UCI World Tour event, all eighteen UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Three other squads were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 21-team peloton. Among the competitors was Alberto Contador, in his first race since returning from a doping ban.
The twenty-one teams that competed in the race were:
Stages
Stage 1 6 August 2012 — Waalwijk (Netherlands) to Middelburg (Netherlands),
The opening stage saw the riders contest five different intermediate sprints on the route from Waalwijk to Middelburg, with the final two intermediate sprint points – one Eneco Bonisprint in Vrouwenpolder and one Checkpoint Primus sprint, just outside Domburg – coming on a finishing circuit in length, around the coast in Zeeland. The finish in Middelburg, and all the later stages, awarded bonus seconds towards the general classification, unlike in previous years. The day's breakaway consisted of a pair of riders as rider Pablo Urtasun was joined at the front by Belgian rider Staf Scheirlinckx, riding for one of the three home wildcard teams, .
The duo extended their advantage to a maximum of around eight-and-a-half minutes around halfway into the stage, but several teams sent riders to the front of the main field in order to bring back the lead pair towards the peloton before the finishing loop. They ultimately did so, as the leaders were caught prior to the finish, while led the field across the finish line for the first time. 's Tim Declercq attacked off the front of the field around halfway through the lap, but was ultimately brought back. A crash in the peloton reduced numbers – to around thirty riders – for the bunch sprint, where 's Marcel Kittel held off the rest of the field for his first victory since June's Ster ZLM Toer. Kittel finished ahead of rider Arnaud Démare and 's Taylor Phinney, the 2011 opening stage winner, to the line; the latter sprinting after a mishap with team-mate Adam Blythe, who finished fifth.
Stage 1 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 4" 3 + 6" 4 + 6" 5 + 7" 6 + 8" 7 + 8" 8 + 9" 9 + 9" 10 + 10"
Stage 2 7 August 2012 — Sittard (Netherlands), , team time trial (TTT)
For the first time since the Eneco Tour was established in 2005, one of the race's stages was held as a team time trial; held over , around the towns of Sittard and Geleen in the Netherlands. However, the stage was predominantly run in the far north-west of Germany, passing through the villages of Tüddern, Höngen, Süsterseel and Hillensberg, where there was a small climb at the intermediate time-point. Much like individual time trial stages, each of the squads set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the teams general classification at the end of the previous stage, with the exception of – seventh in the standings – who started after the classification leaders , as Marcel Kittel held the lead of the race overall for . Thus, , who were bottom of the classification, after recording the highest cumulative score for their best three riders, were the first team to set off on the stage.
set a time of 22' 18" for the course, with only recording a slower time overall, after they were involved in a crash out on the course. were the next team to start the stage, and eventually completed the course in a time of 21' 36", some 42 seconds quicker than the time set by . recorded a time four seconds off the benchmark set by , but soon topped the timesheets with a time of 21' 27". Their time held until came across the line; despite losing three riders from the train, including their highest-placed rider from the previous day, Aidis Kruopis, they still recorded the quickest time by a substantial margin at that point. Their time of 21' 09" was not beaten by the other teams, despite , and all coming within five seconds of the time, and as such, Jens Keukeleire became the race leader, with four of his team-mates also in the same overall time.
Stage 2 Result TeamTime 1 2 + 1" 3 + 2" 4 + 4" 5 + 17" 6 + 18" 7 + 18" 8 + 27" 9 + 27" 10 + 31"General Classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 1" 7 + 1" 8 + 1" 9 + 1" 10 + 1"
Stage 3 8 August 2012 — Riemst (Belgium) to Genk (Belgium),
Just as it was the previous day, the majority of the stage was contested in a different country from the start and finish locations. After an opening loop in Belgium, the stage moved into the Netherlands and contested a circuit around the Limburgish town of Valkenburg aan de Geul, the location of the UCI Road World Championships; the circuit included climbs of the Bemelerberg (twice) and the Cauberg – both prominent in the single-day Amstel Gold Race held in the spring – before heading back towards Belgium and the eventual finish to the stage in Genk. A four-rider breakaway was formed in the early kilometres of the stage, consisting of 's Alex Dowsett, rider Matteo Bono, Laurens De Vreese of and James Vanlandschoot, representing . They managed to establish a maximum advantage of around five-and-a-half minutes on the peloton, which was led by , who were protecting the overall leader of the race, Jens Keukeleire.
With added assistance from the team of the points classification leader Marcel Kittel, the advantage that the leaders held was consistently reduced prior to the finishing circuit around Genk, with the advantage cut from its maximum to around a minute before the final loop of in length, to curtail the day's proceedings. Halfway around the circuit, the peloton had the lead quartet in their sights with only Vanlandschoot making an effort to remain clear and tried to make a solo attempt to stay off the front until the finish. Vanlandschoot's bid was ultimately unsuccessful, as and moved some of their riders forward in the hopes of setting up a sprint finish for their respective sprinters. 's David Tanner also made a late attack for victory, but he too was unsuccessful; and after Kittel's team changed their focus to setting up John Degenkolb for the victory – after Kittel punctured – it was sprinter Theo Bos that crossed the finish line first, for his maiden World Tour victory. Keukeleire finished within the peloton to maintain his overall lead, and was hoping to maintain the lead until Saturday's penultimate stage time trial.
Stage 3 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 1" 7 + 1" 8 + 1" 9 + 1" 10 + 1"
Stage 4 9 August 2012 — Heers (Belgium) to Bergen op Zoom (Netherlands),
The fourth stage of the race was a predominantly flat ride from Heers in the Belgian province of Limburg to Bergen op Zoom in the neighbouring North Brabant province over the border in the Netherlands. The stage itself finished after a closing circuit of in length, with bonus seconds on offer at an intermediate sprint point on the first passage of the finish line. Six riders – rider Frederik Veuchelen, 's Adrián Sáez, Arnoud van Groen (), Martin Kohler of , Gert Dockx for and Boris Shpilevsky representing – went clear in the early kilometres of the stage, and quickly established a substantial lead on the road, reaching a maximum of around eight-and-a-half minutes within the first quarter of the stage.
As it was the previous day, it was holding station on the front of the peloton by protecting the leader of the general classification, Jens Keukeleire. The squad brought the time gap down gradually, in order to maintain Keukeleire's lead on the road through the intermediate sprint points of the stage. , and all helped out with the chase of the lead sextet, reducing the gap to under a minute inside of remaining of the stage. Veuchelen attacked from the group of six with to go, and maintained a 20-second lead into Bergen op Zoom for the first time; Tom Boonen () beat rider Lars Boom to second at the intermediate sprint point, to take the virtual lead of the race from Keukeleire. Veuchelen was swept up by the peloton on the finishing circuit, and it eventually amounted to a bunch sprint for the line; 's Alexander Kristoff made his bid first, but ultimately it was Marcel Kittel that took his second victory of the race, ahead of Dockx's team-mate Jürgen Roelandts and Giacomo Nizzolo of . Boonen finished fourth ahead of Kristoff to take the race lead definitively from Keukeleire.
Stage 4 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 4 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 1" 3 + 2" 4 + 2" 5 + 3" 6 + 4" 7 + 6" 8 + 6" 9 + 6" 10 + 6"
Stage 5 10 August 2012 — Hoogerheide (Netherlands) to Aalter (Belgium),
The final transitional stage of the race saw the peloton start the day in Hoogerheide, best known for its annual World Cup race in the cyclo-cross discipline, before moving back into Belgium before the finish. A finishing loop was once again in place for the closing kilometres of the stage; on this occasion, it was a circuit some in length, with bonus seconds once again on offer at the first passage through the finish line in Aalter. A four-rider breakaway was initiated in the early kilometres of the stage; the move consisted of 's Mickaël Delage, rider Sjef De Wilde, Dimitry Muravyev of and Laurens De Vreese representing , the holder of the black Primus jersey for the leader of the combativity classification awarded for most points at the intermediate sprints. They managed to establish a maximum advantage of over five minutes on the peloton, which was led by , who were protecting the overall leader of the race, Tom Boonen.