Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) avoided a massive pileup in the closing meters of the bunch sprint to win Scheldeprijs on Wednesday in Belgium.
Canadian Dominque Rollin (Cervélo TestTeam) steered clear of the mayhem to earn his first European podium with third place while Tony Cruz bolted to fourth in strong showing by BMC Racing that also saw Jeff Louder work into the day’s main breakaway.
Louder joined a 14-man breakaway early in the race and was only caught in the closing 10km.
The pack came roaring in for a mass sprint when several riders went down hard on the left side of the road with about 200 meters to go, including Greg Van Avermaet (Silence-Lotto), Robbie McEwen (Katusha) and Paris-Roubaix champ Tom Boonen (Quick Step).
Petacchi powered home victorious for his seventh win on the 2009 season, relegating Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano) to second.
Both Rollin and Cruz avoided the chaos and sprinted to season-best results in the important Belgian semi-classic.
A video of the final kilometer, including the crash, is on the Belgian Web site www.sporza.be.
http://www.velonews.com/article/90569/petacchi-wins-scheldeprijs-rollin-third-cruz-fourth
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