Vuelta a Espana - Valverde confirms Vuelta victory

Eurosport - Sun, 20 Sep 20:52:00 2009

Columbia's Andre Greipel won a sprint finish in the final stage of the Vuelta a Espana in Madrid as Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d'Epargne finished safely in the pack to confirm his first overall win in a grand tour.

CYCLING - Caisse D'Epargne rider Valverde celebrates on the podium after winning the Tour of Spain next to second-placed Euskaltel-Euskadi rider Sanchez and third-placed Silence-Lotto Evans after the the last stage of La Vuelta - 0

The big German powered past Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) in the final hundred metres to take his fourth stage win of the race, extending the margin of his win in the sprinters' points competition.

Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) was a close third, with Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) back in fourth.

The day however belonged to Valverde, who pulled on the gold jersey for the final time atop the podium in the Spanish capital - this time no longer as the leader of the Vuelta, but as the winner.

Occupying the final two places on the podium were Euskaltel's Samuel Sanchez and Cadel Evans of Silence-Lotto, who finished 55 seconds and a minute, 32 seconds behind Valverde respectively.

The Australian will look back on his untimely puncture in the Sierra Nevada as the moment his hopes of overall victory collapsed.

The winner of the mountains classification was Frechman David Moncoutie (Cofidis) while Xacobeo-Galicia topped the team standings ahead of Caisse d'Epargne.

As is customary in the final stage of cycling's three grand tours, the first part of the day saw the peloton proceed at pedestrian tempo, savouring the moment and exchanging jokes and pleasantries with many riders taking the opportunity to congratulate Valverde on his success.

Upon reaching Madrid, Cofidis' Bingen Fernandez was given the opportunity to ride in front of the peloton, saluting the crowd in his final race as a professional cyclist.

A six-man break including Dominik Roels (Milram), Remy di Gregorio (FdJ), Mickael Delage (Silence-Lotto), David Garcia (Xacobeo-Galicia), Jesus Rosendo (Andalucia-Cajasur) and Manue Vazquez (Contentpolis-Ampo) then made off and the real racing began.

The sextet opened up a gap that grew to 25s on the peloton with 15km remaining, though the Columbia, Saxo Bank and Liquigas teams kept up a punishing tempo to ensure they were reeled back in with three kilometres remaining.

The Liquigas team brought the pack through the final kilometre and gave Bennati the perfect lead-out round the final corner on the Paseo de la Castellana.

However the Italian had no answer to the power of Greipel, who came powering through the middle to take his fourth stage win and confirm his status as the best sprinter in the race.

Eurosport

Comment 3 - 22 of 22

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  1. Evans was lost 1 minute because problem on bike

    From bobcha78, on Mon 21 Sep 8:50PM

  2. Comment 21 has got to be the most valid one of the lot­ : Valverde fans wake up to the truth !

    From martin.pugh55, on Mon 21 Sep 6:32PM

  3. Surely if Valverde is innocent of the accusations made­ agasint him he could put it all to bed very, very­ easily. Take a DNA test and if it does not match the­ Valv Piti blood samples it is not his blood and he was­ not involved in the blood doping run by Fuentes. Why­ won't he do this and clear it all up for everyone?­ One cannot help but suspect that the answer is the,­ sadly, rather obvious one. He has spent too long hiding­ behind Spanish judicial procedure and racing when­ others like Basso were suspended for their association­ with Fuentes. Alejandro: if you are not Valv Piti you­ could demonstrate it, so why don't you?

    From DAVID, on Mon 21 Sep 5:22PM

  4. Congratulations to all the riders who finished the­ Vuelta a Espana & to those who helped create­ excitement on the individual stages.
    Way to go­ Alejandro & good luck for the rest of the season.

    From jackaroo, on Mon 21 Sep 3:22PM

  5. Interesting podium. An attacker, a descender and a­ follower. Good competition this year...I just wish the­ Vuelta would not hold the place of a second tier race.­ It is a fun race but its place is pretty much firmly­ cemented as that of a second tier Grand Tour if there­ is such a thing because of the way cyclists race­ nowdays. The field determines that stature the race­ holds, but that does not mean it is not fun to watch.

    From istoleyourbicycle, on Mon 21 Sep 1:40PM
  6. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    All those who like to condemn Valverde and constantly­ accuse him of cheating, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW??­ You'd be better keeping your sticky fingers off­ your keyboards.
    I know Alejandro Valverde personally.­ He is a brilliant cyclist, a prfoessional both on and­ off the bike AND he is frequently tested. So to those­ who seem to know better, remind me please of when AV­ was tested positive, or better still, just shut the­ kcuf up.

    From Jeremy, on Mon 21 Sep 12:47PM

  7. Can't help to think this win isn't right! I­ like to see the UCI make a REAL effort to clean up this­ sport.

    From Big Man, on Mon 21 Sep 12:07PM

  8. They say Valverde is a cheat as he is tainted by drugs­ - do they say the same about David Millar, who finally­ won a major tour time-trial on Stage 20 after being­ beaten into second place or worse so many times since­ he lost his World Championship title (for admitting to­ doping)?
    As for Valverde being the best - I don't­ know. If you add all the time bonuses up he and Sanchez­ won and deducted them, who really rode the course in­ the shortest time? Valverde snatched a few extra­ seconds aside from the bonuses on a few mountain stages­ but Sanchez destroyed him in the time trial.
    Prior to­ this, Valverde will no doubt say himself that his most­ memorable win was against Armstrong in the TdF about­ 4-5 years ago - he followed the American up the­ mountain when he broke from the other GC contenders and­ sprinted past him on the line.
    No, Valverde is not­ necessarily the best rider, simply the best at playing­ for the bonuses, a damn good sprinter on a tough­ finish, and maybe the cleverest for knowing his­ strengths and capitalising on them.
    As for Evans, his­ strongest asset must be his fingertips, for all he ever­ seems to do is hang on to others by them.

    From kevin, on Mon 21 Sep 11:08AM

  9. Good work Evans, and well done Valverde.
    He is banned­ from racing in italy, but of course he can race in­ other countries. UCI let him. The italians dont want to­ see a spanish on top. Sad.

    From Mike, on Mon 21 Sep 11:06AM

  10. LOL, nice Valverde but we all know how you did it.­ Somebody that is banned from racing in italy can race­ in spain. This is so ridiculous. Congrats Sanchez and­ Evans you guys are the real winners.

    From Andre, on Mon 21 Sep 9:14AM

  11. @Vitor (c10) - it is completely unfair and­ disrespectful to label the Vuelta as a consolation­ price for underachievers at the Tour/Giro. That's­ like saying Flanders is consolation for those who­ can't win Roubaix, or Lombardy is a consolation for­ those riders who aren't good enough to win Liege. ­ Complete nonsense. True, the number one objective for­ the number one stage racer is the TdF, but the Vuelta­ certainly has it's place and offers a different­ challenge. In past years, many great riders like­ Hinault, Merckx, Antequil would elect to skip the Tour­ in favour of the Giro or Vuelta, as they saw it as a­ very important part of their palmares.

    From pedro118118, on Mon 21 Sep 9:00AM

  12. bravo VUELTA a ESPANA!!!CONGRATALATIONS to­ ALEJANDRO,SAMUEL AND CADEL!!!

    From ryan, on Mon 21 Sep 5:25AM

  13. LOOKING TO THE VUELTA'S FIELD IN THE PAST COUPLE OF­ YEARS, PARTICULARLY THIS YEAR, YOU REALISE THE VUELTA­ IS WELL BELOW THE TDF AND EVEN THE GIRO. I GUESS THE­ VUELTA IS BECOMING EVEN MORE THE CONSOLATION PRIZE FOR­ THOSE WHO UNDERACHIEVE IN THE GIRO AND/OR IN THE TOUR.

    From Vítor, on Mon 21 Sep 1:43AM

  14. Well done to Valverde. He proved all the doubters­ Wrong. Valverde against all tests has proved who is the­ BEST!!!
    Bravo A Valverde. The hatreds with their­ ficticious stories can eat out their rotten hearts.

    From AndJustice4All, on Sun 20 Sep 11:05PM

  15. well done valverde. well done. lets see how you do in­ the Giro and the tour. Do your DNA test and your two­ years. Respect (sort of) Basso for admitting, did his­ time. Valverde is a liar and a cheat.

    No drug test­ for autologus blood doping, so do the DNA test.

    From chris, on Sun 20 Sep 8:30PM

  16. Valverde has been drug tested everyday that he has been­ in the gold jersey(quite a few days). Everyday in La­ Vuelta the race winner, race leader, and three random­ participants are tested. The "tainted" part­ of victory claimed by some is a tired argument.

    From tomas.americano, on Sun 20 Sep 8:00PM

  17. Great win Alejandro! You were the best in this race.­ Forget your detractors, they like to make statements­ without the results to back up their argument. You back­ it up with your determination on the bike. What a­ statement from Valverde on La Pandera. That's what­ a champion is about. Salud! Mi amigo!

    From tomas.americano, on Sun 20 Sep 7:56PM

  18. "Chapeau" to Cadel Evans. Never been one of­ my favorites but a gutsy race. Gone up a mile in my­ estimation.

    From johnaerial, on Sun 20 Sep 7:28PM

  19. So The Verve were wrong when they sang 'The Drugs­ Don't Work'. Obviously they do in­ Valv.Piti's case. A tainted victory IMO.

    From Gavin, on Sun 20 Sep 6:57PM

  20. valverde is a tainted by drugs.
    no place in sport for­ cheats

    From loudonsmum, on Sun 20 Sep 6:56PM
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