Italy’s Daniele Bennati of the RadioShack-Nissan squad ended a run of four straight bunch-sprint wins by Germany’s John Degenkolb in the Vuelta a Espana on Thursday with a narrow victory over Britain’s Ben Swift.
Spaniard Alberto Contador retained the overall lead with three stages remaining in the race.
At the end of a high-speed, four-hour dash across the plains of northern Spain, Bennati inched ahead of Swift at the end of a drawn-out sprint in Valladolid’s city center. Australia’s Allan Davis was third and Degenkolb fifth.
Photo: AFP
Bennati, 31, dedicated his first victory of this year to Belgium’s Wouter Weylandt, the previous winner of a Vuelta stage in Valladolid in 2008, who was killed in a crash during last year’s Giro d’Italia, and to a Spanish member of his team’s management who has fallen ill.
“It was a very difficult sprint and I’d like to think that Wouter helped me take the victory today,” Bennati said.
“He was a teammate of mine, and he gave me strength today,” he added.
Bennati, a former race leader of the Vuelta in 2007, 2008 and last year, said his sixth stage win of his career in the Spanish Grand Tour was a result “of slowly but steadily getting better form throughout the Vuelta.”
“My nickname is ‘The Panther’ and panthers can always give one last swipe of their claws in a fight,” he added.
Contador remained in the overall lead, 1 minute, 52 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde, with another Spaniard, Joaquim Rodriguez, in third.
“It was a fast stage, I am sure we averaged 48kph at least,” said Contador, who took the lead from Rodriguez on Wednesday with a spectacular long-distance attack.
“There was always the chance of splits in the wind so I had to be well positioned and close to the front. I’m glad it’s over, one day less to go now and a day without problems,” he said.
The Saxo Bank-Tinkoff rider said he had spent much of the 204.5km stage, the longest of this year’s 2012 Vuelta, “thinking about how I took the lead and how perfect our tactic had been.”
“I talked it over with Joaquim during the stage and to tell the truth, even though we give each other a hammering during the stages, we discuss it in a friendly manner afterwards. And that’s a good thing about our sport,” Contador said.
After yesterday’s straightforward run from Penafiel to La Lastrilla, today’s final mountain-top stage finishes on the summit of the Bola del Mundo.
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