Turning things right around for the team after Bradley Wiggins and Richie Porte withdrew yesterday, Sky Procycling’s Rigoberto Uran sprinted to victory on today’s fourth stage of the Volta a Catalunya in Ascó.
The Colombian rider was in impressive form, being strong enough to go clear in a strong six man move despite being involved in an earlier break. The gap was opened on the third of the day’s three category two climbs, with Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma Quick Step) and Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas) pushing ahead on the climb of the Alt de les Paumeres.
Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) bridged across, then Denis Menchov (Katusha) and Rigoberto Uran (Sky Procycling) made it five out front. David Moncoutie (Cofidis) jumped across soon afterwards and together the six riders tried to fend off the chase behind on the mainly downhill run to the line.
A chasing group behind containing the race favourites, including overnight leader Michael Albasini (GreenEdge), was chasing hard and managed to bridge with 500 metres to go. However that was too late to prevent Uran, Menchov, Szmyd and Moncoutie from taking the first four places on the stage. Jurgen Van Den Broeck got past Sanchez for fifth.
Uran’s triumph was his first since moving to Sky Procycling prior to the 2011 season. “I’m ecstatic, I’ve been close to a win for Team Sky before and it’s nice to finally get this victory,” he said.
“I got in the first break earlier and then the second one went away at the top of the last climb which included quality riders like Denis Menchov, Levi Leipheimer and Samuel Sánchez. So I knew it was a good move. I had hoped we’d take more time but the chase group brought it back towards the end.
“I’ve been feeling really good this week. A few days ago Brad [Wiggins] worked amazingly for me when I got third on stage two but didn’t quite have it at the end. So I really wanted to win this one to repay some of that work and show that I could finish it off.”
Menchov said that he was surprised that the group whittled down so much by the finish, but that it was likely because yesterday’s leg was so tough.
He had hoped to take his first victory in Katusha colours. “I´m a little disappointed, obviously I would have liked to win: but Uran did a great sprint and he passed me in the last few metres,” he said. “Anyways, the most important thing is that little by little my shape is improving: a victory could have been good for the morale, but this second position is good enough/
“I have the feelings that my legs are getting better, so I´m optimistic. Tomorrow I think it´s the last important stage we could win: we´ll see what we can do".
Albasini also finished in this group and consequently holds onto his general classification lead. He came under attack on today’s stage but he and his GreenEdge team were able to control things until the final climb.
After the summit, other teams drove the chase to protect their own interests, including Garmin Barracuda.
The Swiss rider is one minute 32 seconds ahead of Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol), Dan Martin (Garmin Barracuda) and Sanchez.
Morabito is clearly going well, and will try to narrow the gap tomorrow. “Everyone was working well to close the gap, especially Mathias," he said. "We only caught them in the last kilometer. I gave it everything in the last kilometer to catch them and then tried to do the sprint, but I came up a little bit short."
The race continues tomorrow with a lumpy 207 kilometre race from Ascó to Manreso. There are three stages left in the WorldTour event.
Blow by blow:
The riders faced 199 kilometres from Tremp to Ascó, and had three second-category climbs as the main difficulties. These began with the Alt de Fontllonga (km 28), then continued on to what would be two ascents of the Alt de les Paumeres, a 510 metre-high climb which would be scaled at kilometre 150 and also kilometre 179.
Following the second ascent of the latter, there would be just twenty downhill kilometres from there until the finish.
The action began right away with three riders going clear inside the first five kilometres. Jesús Rosendo (Andalucia), Julián Sánchez (Caja Rural) and Ramain Zingle (Cofidis) quickly gained time and after nine kilometres, were four minutes clear. Both Zingle and Rosendo started the day three minutes 41 seconds behind Michael Albasini (GreenEdge), and so became joint leaders on the road.
The gap rose to almost five minutes just before the day’s first climb, the Alt de La Fonilonga. Zingle led Rosendo and Sanchez over the top. The gap was three minutes 45 seconds there and would hover around this mark for quite some time after.
Rosendo was first at the intermediate sprint at Termens, 64 kilometres after the start. At the 100 kilometre point they were three minutes 38 seconds ahead. This had dwindled to two and a half minutes at the start of the first ascent of the Alt de les Paumeres, where Zingle cracked and was gobbled up by the chase.
Rosendo and Sanchez stubbornly continued on past the summit, crossing it seventeen seconds ahead of mountains leader Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank), Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma Quick Step) and the others. Leipheimer had driven the pace on the climb, lining things out and trying to put pressure on leader Albasini.
Sky Procycling’s Uran jumped clear on the descent and stayed ahead for several kilometres, then was caught and passed by Sandy Casar (FDJ BigMat) andTomasz Marczynski (Vacansoleil DCM). They remained clear heading onto the second ascent of the Alt de les Paumeres, where their advantage was up to 37 seconds.
Contenders try to gap Albasini:
Behind, the Lampre ISD team was pushing the pace for its leader Damiano Cuengo. Marczynski pushed ahead of Casar in a bid to win the stage but was closed down by Jurgen Van Den Broeck’s Lotto Belisol squad, who took over from Lampre.
Garmin-Barracuda’s Tom Danielson then jumped, but was covered by Albasini. A number of other short-lived attacks followed, while at the back of the group riders like Sorensen, Christian Vande Velde and, soon afterwards, his Garmin-Barracuda team-mate Dan Martin were coming under pressure.
Martin had started the day sixth overall but was feeling the effects of his crash yesterday.
Leipheimer once again ramped up the pace on the climb, hoping that Albasini would crack. Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas) the put a dig in and got clear with him. They were joined by Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi), who pushed clear over the summit, then was joined soon after by Szmyd. Leipheimer, Denis Menchov (Katusha) and Rigoberto Uran (Sky Procycling) bridged to make it five out front, then David Moncoutie (Cofidis) also got up to them.
They eked out a lead of over ten seconds, but teams such as Garmin-Barracuda were chasing hard behind. Leipheimer was particularly active and pushed hard. Moncoutie and then Sanchez got into difficulty and temporarily lost contact, then got back up again.
With three kilometres to go the gap was down to eight seconds. The distance between the two groups continued to fall and the bunch made the junction inside the final 500 metres. However this was done a fraction too late, and Uran, Menchov, Szmyd and Moncoutie had enough momentum to finish ahead of Van den Broeck, the first home out of the chasing pack.
Sanchez might have been expected to win the gallop from the break, but said that he wasn’t quite at his best level.
"After yesterday’s crash I had a sore body and that always affects performance, but fortunately I was able to perform at a good level and we were in the fight for the victory,” he stated.
"We rode very strong at the end, the break had enough strong riders. There were many more riders and they were well organized, yet they were not able to get us back before the finish. In the sprint I was squeezed a bit and Uran was the strongest.”