The 86th Tour of Belgium was a cycling stage race that took place from 23 to 27 May 2012. It was held in five stages over a distance of 735.4 kilometers and was part of the UCI Europe Tour 2012 in the 2nd HC category .
The first stage over 162 km led from Mechelen to Buggenhout . The mostly flat profile was only lined with a few small climbs in the first third of the race.
The second part of this tour led from Lochristi to Knokke-Heist . These 170.7 kilometers were also mostly flat. The stage went 77.2 km on the 35 km long circuit, which had to be driven twice. A 700 m long section with cobblestones also had to be tackled every time. The target section was slightly uphill.
The third section of the tour was just as flat as the second stage. The 173.5 km from Knokke-Heist to Beveren ran almost parallel to the Dutch border. Only the home straight was slightly uphill in this flat stage.
The fourth stage was a 20.5 km time trial from Turnhout to Arendonk . There were no difficulties to overcome in this extremely flat stage. The route was also straightforward.
The fifth and last stage is not only the hardest and longest section, it is also the only one that led through Wallonia on this tour . The profile of this 208.7 km long course was extremely wavy and had gradients of up to 12%. The Mur de Huy , the finish of the Flèche Wallonne race , was also included. The Mur d'Amay had to be conquered three times to the end before the 1.5 km long and 6% steep final ascent.
On the second stage, five outliers opened up after about 30 kilometers. But Pim Ligthart, Aleksejs Saramotins , Ramon Sinkeldam , Jay Robert Thomson and Mark McNally didn't have any real chances . Although they had a lead of up to five minutes in between, the field pushed the pace in time to catch up with the fugitives. So it came to a mass sprint, which the German André Greipel was able to win again.
On the third stage, too, outliers set out to try their luck. The quintet, consisting of Tijmen Eising , Coen Vermeltfoort , Alessandro Donati , Maxim Belkov and Pieter Vanspeybrouck, was given a maximum lead of only four minutes before most of the 25 km from the finish were caught again. Only Belkov didn't want to give up and came as a soloist up to 10 km from the finish before he was caught. And again there was a mass sprint, in which Greipel won again, with which he managed a hat trick.
The fourth stage was a time trial with 20.5 flat kilometers. The fastest was the German Tony Martin with 24:04 minutes ahead of Lieuwe Westra and his team-mate Niki Terpstra .
The fifth and last stage was the longest and hardest part. The hilly course was made for outliers, and so after several attempts and 35 km, Leonardo Duque, Jacopo Guarnieri , Michael Schär and Joan Horrach set off . A little later they got company from Pim Ligthart, Laurens De Vreese , Jetse Bol , Maxim Belkov and Martin Kohler . But they didn't really have a chance. With a maximum lead of two minutes they were caught up again 40 km from the finish. Shortly afterwards a new group was formed. Also there: Carlos Barredo . As fourth in the overall standings and just one minute behind, Tony Martin set the pace himself in the field to catch up with the outliers. One kilometer from the finish, it was last year's winner Philippe Gilbert who opened the sprint up the final climb. Carlos Betancur had the best legs in the end and was able to secure the day's success. Tony Martin crossed the finish line in seventh place and thus secured the overall victory.
Belgium
RusVelo 50:39:05 h
Sprint scoring
Leonardo Duque
Young talent evaluation
