The Baloise Belgium Tour kicked off on Wednesday afternoon with a 12 kilometre race against the clock around the streets of Beringen. A mix of some tight and technical corners, combined with long flat sections would make for an interesting effort and one that would suit the powerful riders in the bunch. John Degenkolb set the early benchmark time for the team with a very respectable 13 minutes and 53 seconds effort. The fast times in the bunch kept ticking by but not long before the team’s last-man down the ramp, Patrick Eddy, began his effort the race was neutralised due to a medical emergency with a spectator. After emergency services had attended the scene, the race began around 35 minutes later, with Eddy putting in a strong ride to just pip his teammate Degenkolb, crossing the line in a time of 13 minutes and 52 seconds.
Eddy expressed: “It was nice to do another TT after having a decent result at ZLM Tour last week. My start time got delayed just as I finished my warm-up by around 35 minutes due to the incident along the course. I think I kept my cool and adapted well to the challenging situation. I’m happy with how my ride went and it’s nice to be in the top 20 in a pretty classy field like this.”
Everyone at Team dsm-firmenich PostNL sends our best wishes to the spectator.