Chris Froome came out on top in his battle with Alberto Contador to win the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol on Sunday and start the season on a high.
The British Team Sky rider took overall victory in the five-day race having finished sixth in the final 170km stage from Montilla down to the southern Spanish coast at Alhaurin de la Torre, which was won by Juan Jose Lobato.
“So happy and relieved to have held on to this jersey today. Great start to the year, thank you team,” Froome said on Twitter.
Photo: AFP
Spaniard Contador, who beat Froome to win the Vuelta a Espana in September last year, was unable to make up the two seconds that separated him from the lead and finished in ninth place.
“I am very pleased with my preparations,” Contador told reporters. “The big goal for me is the Giro [d’Italia] and I am happy enough with my condition at the moment.”
The victory was set up by a spectacular performance on the fourth day when Froome took the lead after finishing 29 seconds ahead of Contador, who could not cope with the pace set by the Briton on the climb up the Alto de Allanadas.
“I had a good stage on Friday that put me in a strong position, but then Froome also showed that he is in good form,” Contador said. “These kinds of battles, though, are good for the sport.”
In Sunday’s final stage, there was a breakaway by seven riders after the first 40km, but the peloton kept in touch and began to rein them in, with Froome and Contador, both former Tour de France winners, at the head of the chasing group.
Poland’s Maciej Paterski kept up the tempo and still held a lead of about 10 seconds going into the final 10km. He was eventually overtaken and the lead exchanged hands, before Lobato flew to the front inside the final 200m pursued by John Degenkolb, who finished second with Sylvain Chavanel third.
TOUR OF OMAN
AFP, MUSCAT
Spanish climbing specialist Rafael Valls experienced the greatest moment by far of his career in winning the Tour of Oman on Sunday, as Matthias Brandle of Austria clinched the sixth and final stage.
Valls, who seized control in winning the feature stage of the race, the climb to Green Mountain on Friday, had a nine second advantage over Tejay van Garderen of the US, while another Spaniard, the experienced Alejandro Valverde, was third overall, 19 seconds adrift.
Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali scraped into the top 20, more than three minutes off the pace.
For 27-year-old Valls it ended several years of angst and self-doubt over whether he would ever prove himself at the highest level.
“These have been three dream days and this is the apotheosis,” said Valls, who was succeeding 2013 Tour de France winner Chris Froome, the winner of the previous two editions of the race, but who did not compete this year. “It is a reward for the past four or five difficult years that I have experienced. I have proved to myself that I can ride at the level I had before.”
“It gives me a lot of confidence,” added Valls, whose only previous victory was a stage in the Tour de San Luis five years ago.
In the stage itself, Brandle went clear of three other breakaway riders in the final stretch along the Matrah corniche to finish four seconds clear of Belgian Iljo Keisse, with the latter’s compatriot Jef van Meiraghe third, 13 seconds off the pace.
Saturday’s fifth stage had been canceled due to poor weather.
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