BRUSSELS, Brussels Capital Region: Last year’s Tour de France winnner Bradley Wiggins will be the star name on the start line of the Eneco Tour, which begins in Koksijde on the North Sea coast of Belgium today.
Fresh from his return from injury and illness at the Tour of Poland, which ended a week ago, Wiggins will continue his preparation for September’s World Championships, in which he is aiming to claim time trial gold.
He is joined by a strong field including Tour of Poland winner Pieter Weening, the recent winner of the Tour fo Denmark Wilco Kelderman as well as last year’s winner of this event Lars Boom and reigning world road race champion Philippe Gilbert.
The event, formerly known as the Tour of Benelux, takes the peloton through Belgium and the Netherlands over seven stages and 1,080km, including a 13.2km individual time trial on next Friday’s fifth stage.
Although unimpressive on his comeback in Poland, finishing 48th overall, Wiggins blitz to victory in the final stage time trial, beating race-against-the-clock specialist Fabian Cancellara by almost a minute over 37km.
Meanwhile, veteran German rider Jens Voigt, who will turn 42 next month, has said he intends to carry on in the sport until the end of the 2014 season.
“No No- no retirement yet!!” Voigt wrote on Twitter on Friday. “I will happily ride that new bike a whole new saison next year - Down Under, Europe, Asia and again Amerika....”
“It will take me all of next year to slowly say good bye and get my mind around the fact that i will retire end of next year... But not yet!” added Voigt, of the RadioShack team, who will carry the name Trek for the next season.
Voigt, who was born on September 17, 1971, turned professional in 1997 and has since won two stages on the Tour de France, in 2001 and 2006.
Elsewhere, American outfit BMC yesterday announced the signing of Slovakian rider Peter Velits from the Omega Pharma team for next season.
Velits, 28, is the Slovakian time-trial champion and finished second on the Tour of Spain in 2010.
He leaves Omega Pharma as Alessandro Petacchi, Rigoberto Uran and Mark Renshaw all join the Belgian team.AFP
