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RACE REPORTS: VUELTA A ESPAÑA STAGE 16 REPORT: GREIPEL GRABS THE SPRINT
Road Bike Action and AFP
September 15, 2009
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(Photo: Yuzuru Sunada)
Germany's Andre Greipel of Team Columbia dominated a bunch sprint to win the 16th stage of the Vuelta a España on Tuesday as Alejandro Valverde retained the race leader's gold jersey. Greipel soloed over the finish line of the 170km stage between Cordoba and here with his arms in the air in triumph after leaving his sprint rivals for dust in the closing meters. After picking up his third stage from this year's race, he explained that pointing his fingers to the sky was to pay tribute to a lost friend, and his deceased grandfather.
"It's a very important win for me, I very much wanted to get the victory today for a lot of reasons," said Greipel. "I lost my best friend three years ago on this exact day, and also my grandfather died on this day, too."
Moments earlier a crash halted the progress of the main peloton as several teams wound up the speed in anticipation of a bunch sprint for the finish line. Caisse d'Epargne team leader Valverde managed to avoid the carnage and finished to retain his 31-sec lead over Dutchman Robert Gesink of Rabobank in
the overall standings. The overall top five remained unchanged with Spain's Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez, of Euskaltel, in third at 1:10, Italian Ivan Basso fourth at 1:28 and Cadel Evans of Australia fifth at 1:51. Valverde, who has never won a major three-week Tour, is now expected to keep a tight grip on the gold jersey until the potential decider - the penultimate stage time trial over 26km in Toledo on Saturday.
"Fortunately I was able to avoid the crash and Madrid is getting nearer every day," said Valverde, who appreciated staying out of trouble at the finish. "The last kilometers were very nervous with a lot of tension in the bunch because too many riders were trying to come back to the front to take part in the sprint." Greipel added: "It was a tricky finish with a lot of corners, but my team-mates kept me in front and I managed to stay out of trouble. We were lucky that only one rider was in the break and that made it a lot easier for us to control the race during the stage."
Discussing his chances of keeping the green points jersey to Madrid, Greipel said "there are two stages that should finish in a bunch sprint and two that are going to be very mountainous, so it's going to be difficult."
Vuelta a España Stage 16, 170km
1. André Greipel (Ger/Columbia-HTC) 4:50:44
2. William Bonnet (Fra/Bbox Bouygues Telecom) @ s.t.
3. Daniele Bennati (Ita/Liquigas)
4. Gerald Ciolek (Ger/Milram)
5. Francisco Jose Pacheco Torres (Spa/Contentpolis-Ampo)
6. Leonardo Duque (Col/Cofidis)
7. Jürgen Roelandts (Bel/Silence-Lotto)
8. Sébastien Hinault (Fra/AG2R La Mondiale)
9. Matti Breschel (Den/Saxo Bank)
10. Iñaki Isasi (Spa/Euskaltel-Euskadi)
Overall Classification After Stage 16
1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Caisse d'Epargne) 69:59:34
2. Robert Gesink (Ned/Rabobank @ .31
3. Samuel Sánchez (Spa/Euskaltel-Euskadi) @ 1:10
4. Ivan Basso (Ita/Liquigas) @ 1:28
5. Cadel Evans (Aus/Silence-Lotto @ 1:51
6. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa/Xacobeo Galicia) @ 1:54
7. Joaquím Rodríguez (Spa/Caisse d'Epargne @ 5:53
8. Paolo Tiralongo (Ita/Lampre-NGC) @ 6:34
9. Tom Danielson (USA/Garmin-Slipstream) @ 8:28
10. Juan José Cobo (Spa/Fuji-Servetto) @ 10:45
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