Greg Van Avermaet won a sprint finish in the ninth stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Monday, with Egoi Martinez of Spain taking the overall lead.
Avermaet, who rides for the Silence Lotto team, finished the 200.8km leg along the Pyrenees in 4 hours, 57 minutes, 22 seconds. The 23-year-old Belgian edged Davide Rebellin of Italy and Spain’s Juan Antonio Flecha in the final stretch, with the breakaway group of 11 riders finishing ahead of the main pack by 52 seconds.
“I felt good and took advantage of my options,” Van Avermaet said. “I worked really hard on the breakaway because I knew I was one of the fastest.”
Van Avermaet felt more confident after emerging from the 1,290m class-one mountain Serrablo with a slender advantage.
“It was then I felt I could do it,” Van Avermaet said.
Euskatel rider Martinez leads the standings with 33 hours, 23 minutes, 56 seconds. Astana’s Levi Leipheimer of the US is 11 seconds behind in second place.
“This is a very sweet moment for me,” Martinez said. “I tend to have one very sweet moment every two years and it’s turned out to be today.”
The Spanish Vuelta, the cycling season’s third major tour, finishes in Madrid on Sept. 21.
■TOUR OF MISSOURI
AP, KANSAS CITY, Missouri
British rider Mark Cavendish broke from a large pack with just more than 200m left to win the first stage of the Tour of Missouri on Monday.
Cavendish stayed with the main pack with his Columbia teammates before bursting down the last straightaway on the 145km stage from St. Joseph to Kansas City.
A sprint specialist, Cavendish is a four-time stage winner in the Tour de France and won three stages in last week’s Tour of Ireland.
US rider Tyler Farrar of Garmin/Chipotle finished second and Italian Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas finished third.
■TOUR OF BRITAIN
AFP, LONDON
Australia’s Matthew Goss won the second stage of the Tour of Britain on Monday.
Goss avoided the chaos caused by a collision toward the end of the stage in Newbury, southwest of London, and finished just ahead of his Garmin-Chipotle team-mates Julian Dean and Chris Sutton.
Alessandro Petacchi retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey after a sixth-place finish.
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