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Johan Van Engelen wins 1580 Tour de Valland
By Richard W. Wallace
Published: Zechyr 25, 1580


The veteran Batavian climber was able to impose to his main rivals without epic exhibitions.


Lauren, Valland - Johan Van Engelen won yesterday the Tour de Valland after a calm last stage in Lauren, which was won by Oslanburgan sprinter Sven-Ole Wieth (Scholden-Gulcron), his third individual stage win this Tour. Wieth overtook Batavian Immanuel Botha (Lentar-Swift) and Mordvanian Elmar Nurksë (Crédit Blondel) in a disputed final sprint.

Johan Van Engelen, 34, becomes the first Batavian to win a Grand Tour, and the first Skathian rider to win the Tour de Valland. Van Engelen ended 5th last year, but it was not expected to be a top contender for the final victory. Van Engelen had his better result in 1576, when he was defeated by the young Goldecian all-rounder Max Jordan in the Ceribian Tour, in the only Grand Tour podium until today for the Batavian climber. Van Engelen was regarded as a competitive climber, but not very consistent for the fight of the general classification, very often suffering in the last week of the Tour, and poor performances in time-trial.

This year the Tour de Valland was considered not as tough as previous years, and with a second and final time-trial stage without high mountain stages left, and riders such as Stavros Michelakakis (MTS Team), Elton Isaksson (ZMG-Nissen), Marc Menethil (Dagslag-NVB), Ceribian Tour winner Wenceslao Cánovas (New Galeae) or last year winner Strathaen Kieran McLucais were considered the top contenders for the Tour. However, Van Engelen proved to be more constant and tenacious rider, and achieved his greatest victory in his career as cyclist.

It was already clear at the beginning of the third week that Van Engelen and Ceribian climber Murtaz Sukhisvili (AM-Koske), along Kelly McCullain (United Strathae) at some distance, were the only riders left to the fight for the title. Van Engelen almost clinched the victory in the last high mountain stage won by the Vallish champion Robert Artaud (Rolareux-Printemps), in which he took the leading maillot for first time, and with a lead of almost three minutes over Marc Menethil, after both Sukhisvili and McCullain collapsed and lost five and six minutes respectively. Van Engelen's lead became definitive when Menethil lost a minute to Van Engelen's main group on the next stage in a mid-mountain stage which was expected to be a transition one. Although he is certainly not a specialist at time-trial, Van Engelen had a comfortable and decent performance on the time-trial on stage 19, only losing less than two minutes regarding the Adwestene all-rounder, who ended two minutes and five seconds behind Van Engelen in the final general classification.

It was the second time Marc Menethil (Dagslag-NVB) ended as runners-up in the Tour de Valland as he already did in 1577. Mestran climber and twice-winner of the Tour de Valland Stavros Michelakakis (MTS Team) completed the podium. Michelakakis had a disappointing second week, losing several minutes in key stages, but -as he did in 1579- could improve and get back in the final third week.

Svarna Vemulakonda (Ogo Cycling) could only be fourth, in this third top ten for the promising Goldecian all-rounder, while Strathaen climber Kelly McCullain  ended fifth winning the Mountain classification as well. His team, United Strathae, won the Team classification as well, a consolation as the Strathaen team was unable to defend the title,  1579 winner Kieran McLucais ending 32th, way behind his teammates McCullain and Keane MacPhàil.

Only two riders repeated victory this Tour de Valland, the sprinters Robert Malone (Dido-Dreher Cycling) with 4 wins, and Sven-Ole Wieth (Scholden-Gulcron) with 3 wins. However, although he failed to win any individual stage, Batavian sprinter Immanuel Botha (Lentar-Swift) proved to be more consistent and won the Points classification, the first rider to win the green maillot without winning an individual stage.