Alberto Contador Wins Vuelta de Castilla y Leon Time Trail in Spain
Defending champion Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank SunGard team won the fourth stage of the Vuelta de Castilla y Leon time trail on Saturday April 16, 2011.
He covered the distance of 11.2 kilometers in 13 minutes and 42 seconds and his teammate Richie Porte from Australia was in second with the difference of one second. Xavier Tondo Volpini of Movistar team stood third with a difference of three seconds.
Triple Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador said “I’m very happy, I have a great feeling and the team has been impressive. They deserved much more but this victory is for them.”
He further adds, still he have to work harder to reach for the Tour of Italy but he thinks that he have enough time.
In the event Alberto Contador had been the most favorite to take his third overall victory, who already won the Tour of Murcia & Catalonia this year. But on Friday the Spaniard was hit by bad luck in third stage, the attack came to him in the final climb
and he lost almost three minutes after suffering two punctures.
Xavier Tondo of Movistar team was leading in the overall classification with timing of 13 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds. Bauke Mollema of Robobank cycling team was the runner-up with a difference of 9 seconds while Igor Anton of Euskattel Euskadi stood
third with the difference of 17 seconds.
Alberto Contador overall was in 23rd position with the timing of 2 min and 37secs behind Tondo.
After the result Contador said “Of course I’m not happy because my place in the overall standings today would have been different if nothing had happened to me … but that’s cycling.”
The next stage race will start on Sunday. All the riders cover the distance of 167.7 km from Madrigal de las Altas Torres to Medina del Campo.
A quick view to the top five of the Vuelta de Castilla y Leon Time Trail so far as follow;
1. Alberto Contador (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard team, at 13 min & 42 sec.
2. Richie Porte (Aus) Saxo Bank SunGard team, at 1
3. Xavier Tondo Volpini (Spa) Movistar Team, at 3
4. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team, at 15
5. Alex Dowsett (Gbr) Sky Procycling team, at 19
General classification after stage 4;
1. Xavier Tondo Volpini (Spa) Movistar Team, at 13 hrs 31 min 40 sec.
2. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team, at 9
3. Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi, at 17
4. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Colnago – CSF Inox, at 40
5. Jerome Coppel (Fra) Saur – Sojasun, at 47