Colombian Giovanni Báez of the EPM-UNE team took a solo win in the final 112km stage of the Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid. He beat Rui Costa (Movistar) and Javier Moreno (Caja Rural) by 14 seconds. Both Costa and Moreno moved past former race leader Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel Euskadi), who slipped to third place overall.
Báez used the uphill finish to La Morcuera to his advantage and gave the Colombian team a nice win in Europe. Costa was equally happy with his assault on Castroviejo three kilometers from the top. "This is a very important win for me, after all that time without competing. It gives me a lot of confidence," he said after the race. Rui Costa and his brother Mario were initially suspended for doping in the fall of 2010, but were cleared after a long battle.
Costa felt already well in the classics and in the Tour de Romandie. "I knew I had my options here. In the time trial yesterday, the key was to not lose too much time, and when I saw that only Castroviejo was ahead of me, I was confident that I could distance him on today's climb," he said.
The six-man break of the day contained two crucial teammates for Costa, yesterday's stage winner Enrique Sanz and Imanol Erviti. "That was phenomenal for us so we could take it easy." On the climb, Costa watched how Castroviejo answered well to all the attacks and knew he had to put in a special effort. "I started to pull with three kilometers to go and I didn't stop until the finish. It was difficult because I had to control the Colombian on one side, distance Castroviejo on the other and make sure that Javi Moreno, who jumped on my wheel for the last kilometers, won't attack me in the final."
Despite slipping from first to third, Castroviejo was happy with his racing. "I am returning home content, especially because I have gained more confidence." The time trial specialist is not quite as comfortable in the mountains. "I have done races with long climbs and I never felt well. Today, I felt well and I defended my podium spot with a certain ease."
In the end he missed out on a better ranking by just a small margin. "I ended up only two seconds away from second place and I had seven seconds over Schumacher [who was fourth -ed.] After all that happened, I take away that I improved on the climbs."
He still cherishes his 7.8-kilometer prologue performance. "Yesterday's victory in then time trial was very important. The distance was a little short for me, I would have preferred it to be a little bit longer, but, bueno, I am very satisfied with that victory and the third place overall."
Final stage
1. Giovanni Báez (EPM-UNE) 2:59:22
2. Rui Costa (Movistar Team) at 0'14
3. Javier Moreno (Caja Rural)
4. Davide Rebellin (Miche) at 0'23
5. Adrián Palomares (Andalucia)
6. Jesús Herrada (Movistar Team)
7. Stefan Schumacher (Miche) at 0'27
8. Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel Euskadi) at 0'29
9. Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel Euskadi) at 0'32
10. Tino Zaballa (Miche) at 0'36
Final General Classification
1. Rui Costa (Movistar Team) 5:02:43
2. Javier Moreno (Caja Rural) at 0'05
3. Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel Euskadi) at 0'07
4. Stefan Schumacher (Miche) at 0'14
5. Jesús Herrada (Movistar Team) at 0'20
6. Davide Rebellin (Miche) at 0'22
7. Giovanni Báez (EPM-UNE) at 0'31
8. Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel Euskadi) at 0'37
9. Tino Zaballa (Miche) a 0'40
10. Adrián Palomares (Andalucia) a 0'47