Discovery Channel Team Report
With a second place effort in today's final time trial stage in Leur,
Hoste finished today's 26.3 kilometer stage 37 seconds back of stage winner and race winner Bobby Julich of CSC. Julich started the day in 12th place, 37 seconds back of leader Rik Verbrugghe of Quick Step, but blasted through the course to win in 31:14 for an average of just over 50 kph. Verbrugghe only managed 20th in the stage and finished sixth overall. Following Hoste in the overall for the Discovery Channel team was Jurgen Van den Broeck in eighth place,
"I was confident before we started the race that we had a good team here and we would turn in a good performance," said Dirk Demol, the team's assistant sports manager. "Our goals were a stage win and two riders in the top 15, so to win two stages and have two in the top 10, we exceeded our expectations."
Demol was especially pleased with today's effort, with three riders in the top 10 and five in the top 18. After Hoste in the stage, team newcomer Janez Brajkovic, the current U23 world time trial champion, was seventh, at
On Hoste, Demol said, "Earlier in his career, Leif turned in some solid rides in the time trial but over the last few years he didn't focus on it much. When Leif joined our team this year, we decided to focus more on the time trial as it's an event we take very seriously. Now it looks like he's back where he should be."
Demol added that, "I'm very happy with performance of the whole team. Everybody did really well. It was a very good week for us."
In the other classifications, Max van Heeswijk finished second in the points competition, McCartney placed second in the mountains competition, Van den Broeck was third in the young rider competition and the team finished third in the team classification.
Click here for complete stage 7 results and final overall rankings.
