Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team rider Andrew Fenn was the top finisher for the team at the 8km Ster ZLM Toer - GP Jan van Heeswijk prologue on Wednesday, finishing 5th with a time of 9'46".
Robert Wagner (Blanco ProCycling Team) won the prologue with a time of 9'39" while his teammate Lars Boom was 2nd (+03"), and Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano) was 3rd.
Dries Devenyns and Michal Golas of OPQS finished 6th (+08") and 8th (+11"), respectively, meaning three riders from OPQS finished in the top 10 of the prologue. This was the first competition of Devenyns since Vuelta al Pais Vasco, when he fractured the radius of his left arm.
OPQS rider Mark Cavendish — the 2012 champion— finished 14th with a time of 9'58" despite riding in rainy conditions that started about halfway through the prologue. This may have been an advantage for riders such as Boom and Wagner, who rode before the rain hit the course hard.
"I was last off because I won last year, so I sat in the bus waiting to go," Cavendish said. "Halfway through after most of the favorites had gone off, I saw it started raining. So I thought, well, we can do our best to limit our losses without taking any risks. It was a technical course so we just had to really do the best we could with the conditions. I'm happy with my form. As for the team, we've got a few in the top 10 so we'll see how the next days go."
