Brilliant performance for Joaquim Rodriguez in the third and queen stage of “Vuelta al Pais Vasco”, from Victoria-Gasteiz to Eibar in Santuario Arrate, 164 kilometres long: ‘Purito’ took the second position, right behind Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), that reached this classic finishing line of this Iberian competition for first for the third time. The race was characterized by 7 demanding climbing: one 3rd category, four 2nd category and two 1st category, the last one, Alto de Usartza, on the uphill that brought to the end of the stage. Right after the beginning of the stage, five men went on a breakaway, gaining a highest gap of 6′ over the group. As the course approached the finishing line, though, after facing all the uphill of the stage, the escape lost rider after rider, thanks also to the good work
of Katusha in the group: the last one to give up Herrada (Movistar), that right after Alto de San Miguel was joined by two Katusha’s riders, Angel Vicioso and Giampaolo Caruso. The trio finished his escape with 6 kilometres to go, in the first part of the last demanding uphill. Then, with the group in lock step, Joaquim Rodriguez started his action: first, he was able to close the gap between the group and an attack by Chris Horner (RadioShack-Nissan) and Robert Kiserlovsky (Astana); then, with 3 kilometres to go, he tried his own attack, followed only by Sanchez and Horner. The trio stayed ahead until the finishing line: in the final sprint, Sanchez defeated ‘Purito’, with Horner in the last place of the podium. The first chasing group reachedย the end of the stage with a 12” gap: between them Dani Moreno, 11th, and Simon Spilak, 12th. Thanks to this win, Sanchez is now leader of the general classification; Rodriguez is third, with the same time but worse positions.
“I’m happy with today’s performance – said ‘Purito’ – maybe in the last straight I missed a little of energy and grit, but Sanchez knows this course by heart so it was very hard to defeat him. Anyways, in this part of the season, the most important thing is to improve for the upcoming Classic races and for ‘Giro d’Italia’: I’m still not 100%, but I’m reaching my top day by day. Obviously I’m quite disappointed I didn’t win, also because tomorrow Mr. Makarov, President of Russian Cycling Federation, Head of Russian Global Cycling Project, Member of the UCI Committee and Chairman of Board of Directors of ITERA, has his 50th birthday and I would have liked to dedicate a victory to him: it’s thanks to him if the team exists and it’s one of the best World Tour teams, so he really deserves it. Anyways, tomorrow there will be another good stage for us, and we’ll try to do our best for him and for general classification”.
KATUSHA MEDIA SERVICE