Joost wins a stage and dons yellow

Here's a bit of good cycling news. Joost Posthuma is racing again. He's recovered from the injuries he suffered when a motorist hit him during a training ride a couple of months ago and he's won the time trial stage of the Sachsen Tour in Germany and in doing so has taken over the overall lead in the five-day race.

He came in 26th and 23rd in the first and third stages, in that order. He was in a large, successful break in the second stage and came in 19th.

I've copied a description of his time trial win from the Rabo site, below.

Tomorrow's stage is the last.

His achievement gives me something to cheer about. You can read the result in this Cyclingpost article, from which I got the photo that appears above.

Joost's web site has a full account as does the Sachsen Tour site which has this photo:


Meanwhile, you can read about today's stage in the Tour de France, here, if you wish.

Here's the account from the Rabo site:

28/07: (Sachsen) Double win for Posthuma
Joost Posthuma

In the last few days, Rabo-cyclist Joost Posthuma was keeping up well with the pack. Remarkable, because the Dutchman only made his comeback on Wednesday after being out for a few months. In the Sachsen Tour's time trial on Saturday, Posthuma proved that the perceptions were not wrong. He defeated the big favorite Bobby Julich. Because of his stage victory, the Rabo-cyclist, who would probably have been in the Tour de France right now if it had not been for his training accident in mid-April, is now also the new leader in the general classification. The last stage is on Sunday.

Afterwards, Posthuma was also surprised that he had been faster than everyone else. "They told me shortly after my accident that I would not be racing at all for the rest of the year. And now this happens. I am really going to enjoy this tonight." He had shared the good feeling that Frans Maassen had about him. "Friday's stage was the queen's stage. I was okay uphill; I was at least as good as the others."

Posthuma 28 seconds faster than Julich
The time trial was far from easy. "Difficult actually. The same road up and down, but the way back going slightly up. I totally went for it. Everything turned out the way it was supposed to. It is always uncertain how your time trial will go after a long period without coursing." Posthuma took an impressive 28-second lead over Julich. "With a team like this we should be able to hold on to the yellow jersey. After all, the center of gravity in the concluding stage is in the first eighty kilometers already."

The cyclist from Hengelo, the Netherlands, is now aiming at the Vuelta because he is determined to be in one major tour every year. But there are two other 'dishes' on the menu before the Spanish roads: the Classica San Sebastian and the Tour of Germany. But Posthuma first wants to finish the job in Sachsen. There is a chance that the Rabo ProTeam will return home with two jerseys on Sunday if William Walker manages to hold on to the mountain jersey on Sunday as well.

Here's a final photo from the Sachsen site. Click to enlarge.