| Team Columbia Owned and Operated by Highroad Sports, Inc. in San Luis Obispo, CAMedia Highlights
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Arndt wins her second Bronze at World Championships
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Team Columbia Bert Grabsch wins elite Men's World Time Trial Title
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Arndt takes final overall in Toscana
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Teutenberg storms to second stage in Tuscany
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Arndt and Teutenberg victorious in Tuscany
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Columbia women take the lead in Giro della Toscana
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Greipel takes his 13th win of the season
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Arndt Blasts to Third World Cup of Season and Wins Series Overall
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Three for Cavendish in Missouri
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Boasson Hagen takes third win at Tour of Britain
Credit: Isabelle Duchesne
Credit: Isabelle Duchesne
Credit: Isabelle Duchesne
Credit: Isabelle Duchesne
Team Columbia's Andre Greipel wins stage two of the Eneco Tour
August 22, 2008
Team Columbia continued its long run of success in 2008, with Germany's Andre Greipel winning stage two of the Eneco Tour on Friday.
Greipel beat Argentina's Juan Jose Haedo (CSC-Saxo Bank) and compatriot Robert Forster(Gerolsteiner) in a rain-soaked sprint finish in Nieuwegein, in the north of the Netherlands. Kenny Van Hummel (Skil-Shimano) was fourth and stage one winner Tom Boonen was fifth.
Spain's Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) finished in the same time as Greipel and so retained the overall race lead but Team Columbia's Edvald Boasson Hagen gained three precious seconds by winning an early intermediate sprint and is now second overall.
The talented young Norwegian is equal on time with Gutierrez in the official results but Gutierrez leads the race by the 16 hundredths of a second advantage he gained in the opening prologue time trial.
Boasson Hagen was sixth in the stage sprint but could take the race lead in the next few days before going for overall victory in the final stage time trial on Wednesday.
"Edvald is just 16 hundredths of a second behind Gutierrez now. That's close and so perhaps we can get the lead in the next few days. However we don't want to wear out the team and then lose the race by several minutes. We're going to ride smart,"team director Tristan Hoffman said.
"I've lost count of how many sprints Andre has won this year. He dominated the Tour Down Under in Australia and has won another ProTour stage here. He and all the team were good today. John Devine and Servais Knaven worked with other teams to chase the break and then the boys dominated the sprint. There were two lead out trains: Columbia and Liquigas for Bennati but we were the fastest yet again."
The eight-day Eneco Tour is part of the season-long ProTour series and continues on Saturday with stage three from Nieuwegein to Terneuzen in the west of the Netherlands over a distance of 185.9km.
"We had a tailwind for most of stage two but it will be a headwind on stage three. However all the guys are riding well and working together, so there's no reason why we can't win again," Hoffman said.