The Columbia-Highroad speedster Andre Greipel clinched his tenth win of the season on Sunday when the German sprinted to his third victory in four days in Holland’s Ster ElektroToer.  Greipel was the fastest in the bunch sprint that decided the 179-kilometre final stage from Beek to Helmond, outpowering Italians Danilo Napolitano and Sergio Ferrari.

Greipel’s victory confirmed him as points winner of the five-day Dutch race. Following a first half of the season where he could not race after crashing badly in the Tour Down Under in Australia, the Columbia-Highroad sprinter has shown strong form since his comeback in the Four Days of Dunkirk in France.

“It ended in a photo finish after Napolitano came close but Andre got the win, his tenth out of 18 races in 2009,” commented Columbia-Highroad sports director Allan Peiper.  “It’s often the way when riders have had a bad injury like Andre, when they come back they’re hungrier for the wins and at a better level than if they’d been racing for longer.  Andre already had the confidence he could do it after winning the Tour Down Under back in 2008.  Then as soon as he could after the injury he started training hard again and never gave up. It’s like I always say, something good can come out of something bad.”

Columbia-Highroad’s Marcel Sieberg was present in a dangerous break of 21 riders late on in the stage, but in the final 10 kilometres the race came back together for a bunch sprint.  “[Bert] Dockx, Vicente Reynes and [Frantisek] Rabon pulled back the break, and then in the last 800 metres, Mark Renshaw and Greg Henderson took over to bring Andre up to the sprint.  We didn’t need to do too much work during the stage, just some work in the cross-winds, because after Saturday’s stage in the Ardennes we were out of the main battle for the overall and other teams were fighting it out.  But we believe in Andre 100 percent, and when it counted the guys worked hard to ensure that it all stayed together, and that Andre was in the right position to go for the win.”