Welcome to the Circuit Scheldeprijs Sarthe, a double barrel race review of the French Belgian semi-something or others!
Mistakes were made. SOmetimes the strong and fast win and sometime the clever and lucky win and sometimes somebody just does something so stupid that ruins it for most of the favorites.
That was the case today in the Circuit Scheldeprijs Sarthe. Garmin-Cervelo’s young Michael Kreder pulls a surprise on Danielle Bennatti to take a win. The real surprise was the bone-head move by Bennatti’s leadout man Danilo Viganò who opening his sprint a day early, at 800 meters.
Once Vigano realized Bennatti wasn’t on his wheel he sat up and wrecked the chances of many of the sprinters, including his own man. Instead it was the clever Kreder passing the Leopard on the right side. Easy-cheesy as the wife likes to say.
“I can sprint but I didn’t expect to get my first pro win in a bunch sprint finish,” Kreder told Cyclingnews. Hope he poured a glass of podium champagne for Vigano as thanks.
That was the good Garmin, news flash — the bad came in the second part of the Circuit Scheldeprijs Sarthe, Mark Cavendish benefitted from the bone-head move by Wouter Weylandt (Leopard Trek) who took Tyler Farrar down hard in a crash in the final few hundred meters.
Not only does Farrar miss a shot at winning but roughed himself up pretty good before Paris-Roubaix. Garmin needs a rabbits foot and a bag of four-leaf clovers. (Fortunately, twitter doctor Jonathan Vaughters says “Farrar is OK.”)
Leaving the carnage behind, Cavendish cruises to an easy win ahead of Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) and Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ). Can you imagine if Galimzyanov had a son who married Hutarovich’s daughter and the daughter decided to keep both last names with a hyphen? Hutarovich-Galimzyanov is a mouthful — but we digress.
There you have it. The Circuit Scheldeprijs Sarthe. Double proof that often luck is as important as legs.
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