Daniel Moreno of Katusha has won the final stage of the Tour of Andalucia, two seconds clear of the overall winner, Alejandro Valverde
 |
After yesterday´s victory by Oscar Freire, today it was Dani Moreno´s turn for Team Katusha. The rider from Madrid surprised his rivals on the last climb which started with two kilometres to go with an average gradient of 8% and a maximum of 15%.
His final attack, the decisive one, was part of an aggressive strategy by Katusha. Yuriy Trofimov was in the day’s breakaway together with six other riders. That group opened up a maximum lead of two minutes over the main group before one by one, Trofimov´s companions sat up before the Russian was caught with 10k to go.
Then, in the final kilometre, Dani Moreno surprised his rivals with an attack that nobody had a reply for. The Spanish rider won by two seconds over race leader (and winner) Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) while Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) completed the podium. On the general classification, Valverde held on to win overall.
“This victory is really unexpected” said Moreno afterwards. “I felt in a good shape today, but my rivals today were very strong, especially Valverde who is back to his usual standards. Anyway, I was able to surprise him and with 500 metres to go, I took advantage and when they replied it was too late. I´m very happy with this result. We proved to be a very strong team which fights for the win everyday. Now I´m going to a mountain training camp in order to improve my shape and then I´ll take part in Tirreno-Adriatico, where we want to obtain great results as well as here in Andalucia”.
Stage 5
1 Daniel Moreno Team Katusha 3:14:54
2 Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team 0:02
3 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez Euskaltel – Euskadi @ same time
4 Sergey Lagutin Vacansoleil – DCM Pro Cycling Team @ same time
5 Jelle Vanendert Lotto – Belisol Team @ same time
6 Robert Gesink Rabobank Cycling Team @ same time
7 Denis Menchov Team Katusha @ same time
8 Bauke Mollema Rabobank Cycling Team @ same time
9 Igor Anton Hernandez Euskaltel – Euskadi @ same time
10 Rein Taaramäe Cofidis – Le Credit En Ligne @ same time
11 Jerome Coppel Saur – Sojasun @ same time
12 Maxime Monfort RadioShack – Nissan @ same time
13 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre RadioShack – Nissan @ same time
14 Tom Dumoulin 1t4i @ same time
15 David Lelay Saur – Sojasun @ same time
Final Overall
1 Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team 4:08:47 p.m.
2 Rein Taaramäe Cofidis – Le Credit En Ligne 0:03
3 Jerome Coppel Saur – Sojasun 0:08
4 Denis Menchov Team Katusha @ same time
5 Sergey Lagutin Vacansoleil – DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:15
6 Tom Dumoulin 1t4i 0:18
7 Frank Schleck RadioShack – Nissan 0:22
8 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre RadioShack – Nissan 0:26
9 Maxime Monfort RadioShack – Nissan 0:27
10 Wilco Kelderman Rabobank Cycling Team 0:28
11 Robert Gesink Rabobank Cycling Team @ same time
12 Bauke Mollema Rabobank Cycling Team 0:29
13 Adrian Palomares Villa Plana Andalucia – Caja Granada 0:32
14 Matthias Brändle Team NetApp @ same time
15 Igor Anton Hernandez Euskaltel – Euskadi 0:35
