Dutchman Theo Bos has brought a second win to his Cervélo TestTeam today in the Vuelta a Murcia, beating Rabobank sprinter Graeme Brown and Daniel Schorn in the race's final stage. There were no changes in the final general classification today, which meant that Czech Frantisek Rabon (HTC-Columbia) took the overall victory thanks to his performance in yesterday's time trial.
"There was one second category climb in the stage of today and I had to pass that one," said stage winner Bos after the race. "As we expected Rabobank set the tempo in the front, but my teammates stayed around me providing perfect support.
"It was really a fast final and that is really good for me," he continued. "Brown was on my wheel and I knew that I had to watch him. With 300 meters to go I opened the sprint and saw Brown coming off of my wheel. When he tried to pass me I accelerated and he was not able to pass me and came back on my wheel. The team did a great job for me today. Philip Deignan was in the breakaway and that was perfect for us because Rabobank had to chase him. Stefan Denifl stayed with me in the final and brought me into a perfect position.
"Today I had my best legs of the week and I felt a big change today," said the Dutchman. "The first stage I messed up a little bit because I was too far back in the peloton in an important moment in the race so I wanted to make something good today, and I did."
Today's 121 kilometer stage from Redyser to Murcia began fast, with a group of nine slipping away from the peloton. The escape was too large for the sprinter's teams and it was given a short leash on the short, flat stage.
Six of the nine in the break were absorbed by the peloton, with a defiant trio of Philip Deignan (Cervélo TestTeam), Oleg Chuzhda (Caja Rural) and Alexandre Blain (Endura Racing) pressing onward toward Murcia. The stubborn threesome weren't brought back into the fold until the final three kilometers of the race, where Deignan's teammate Bos took over and powered his way to win the stage. Today Bos confirmed his win just over a week ago in front of Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) at the Clasica de Almeria was no fluke. Brown finished third that day.
"The first 40 kilometres of the final stage, before the one big climb of the day, were a bit crazy with attacks going everywhere. But afterwards we kept it all under control," explained HTC-Columbia sports director Tristan Hoffman.
"At one point there was a break of nine riders, with one of them a potential threat because he was less than three minutes behind Frankie [Rabon] on the overall. Fortunately, he dropped out of the break and we combined with the sprinters' teams to close things down."
"Frankie's always been a great time triallist, but now he's getting much better on the climbs, too, so we weren't too worried," concluded Hoffman.
The battle for the overall ended with yesterday's 22 kilometer individual time trial Alhama de Murcia, where Rabon surprised the field putting more than half a minute on Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and British Tour de France hopeful Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky). Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong (RadioShack) finished a disappointing eighth 1:18 off the time set by Rabon, with teammate Andreas Klöden putting 26 seconds into the American on the short course.
Stage 5 results:
1. Theo Bos (Ned) Cervélo TestTeam
2. Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
3. Daniel Schorn (Pol) NetApp
4. Valentin Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana
5. Henning Bommel (Ger) LKT Team Brandenburg
2010 Vuelta a Murcia Final General Classification:
1. Frantisek Rabon (Cze) HTC-Columbia 25’10”
2. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank @ 38s
3. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky @ 53s
4. Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack @ 57s
5. Josep Jufre (Spa) Astana @ 1m 21s
6. Stef Clement (Ned) Rabobank @ 1m 23s
7. Lance Armstrong (Usa) RadioShack @ 1m 23s
8. Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank @ 1m 41s
9. Luke Roberts (Aus) Milram @ 1m 42s
10. Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) CCC-Polsat-Polkowice @ 1m 59s
The Closing Kilometers