LARS BOOM: VUELTA’S NEW KING OF THE MOUNTAINS!
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;setCaption(document.image_thumb); "Rabobank’s Lars Boom leads the breakaway again on Stage 4 of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana. Photo by Cor Vos.")
;setCaption(document.image_extra_one_thumb); "Lars Boom pulls on the King of the Mountains jersey after winning all three climbs in Stage 4 of the Vuelta. Photo by Cor Vos.")
Young Rider in First Grand Tour Attacks a Second Day
On the longest stage of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana, Rabobank’s Lars Boom went on the attack for a second straight day, and came out the new leader of the King of the Mountains.
Shortly after the start of the 225km Stage 4 stretch from Venlo in the Netherlands to Liege in Belgium, Boom and three other riders took off and at one point held a 14 minute advantage over the peloton. Unlike the previous three flat stages, Stage 4 involved three climbs and a chilly drizzle that drenched the riders for the entire day.
Boom employed the advantage of the supreme climbing ability of the Giant TCR Advanced SL to win all three climbs on the day, which included two trips up the Alto de Cauberg, and another up the Alto Mont Teux. The KOM points he earned put him in the crimson King of the Mountains jersey at the end of the day. Boom has used his Giant bicycle as a potent weapon, as he’s gone on the attack two days in a row. In stage 3, he led most of the way in a 3-man breakaway and won the day’s Solidarity Sprint, grabbing maximum points during the sprints to put him into the top 10 in the GC. He goes into Stage 5 in 8th place overall, :14 seconds behind leader Fabian Cancellara.
The last kilometers of Stage 4 were marred by more than a few crashes that split the peloton into the final circuit through Liege. The worst occurred with just less than 3km to go. One rider in the field lost his wheels and hit the deck as he tried to negotiate the wet pavement markings on a roundabout. The resulting chain reaction took out dozens of racers. The entire peloton, except for seven or eight riders who were at the very front, virtually came to a halt. Andre Greipel of the Columbia HTC team was one of those lucky few to be at the front and he crossed the line first to win the stage.
During the podium ceremony as Lars Boom donned the KOM jersey he seemed subdued; whether that was due to fatigue, or concern for riders who went down in the mass crash was not clear.
The rest day gives all the riders a chance to recover before taking up the race again on Thursday in Spain on what everyone hopes is a drier stage from Tarragona to Vinaros.