Alejandro Valverde succeeds at the third stage of the Paris-Nice 2012
Alejandro Valverde sealed yet another victory to continue his tremendous 2012 form. The cyclist grabbed victory at the third stage of the Paris-Nice.
He finished the 194 kilometre chase to Lac de Vassivière in a fastest time of 4 hours, 36 minutes and 19 seconds.
Simon Gerrans of Team GreenEdge finished second with Gianni Meersman, Luis Leon Sanchez and Xavier Florencio Cabre at the third, fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively.
“I’m thrilled, it’s a very important victory,” he said afterwards. “I have to thank the team again because they have done a phenomenal job and I was able to finish it off. This victory was for them because they deserve it”.
The Spaniard briefed that the last few kilometres of the race became very difficult, as the whole peloton was pushing hard towards the finish-line.
He succeeded by a small margin over Gerrans. “The finale was very tight and I won narrowly, so thanks to Simon, because it was a nice fight,” Alejandro briefed.
Valverde is having a tremendous season after his return to professional cycling. The cyclist was banned from the sport because of his involvement in Operacion Puerto.
The 31-year-old joined Team Movistar to continue his 2012 pursuit and helped the team with a perfect start ahead of the new season.
He secured the overall victory at the Vuelta a Andalucia, along with the stage 2 victory at the race. He also grabbed the point’s classifications at the event.
Valverde finished second overall at the Tour Down Under and also claimed the fifth stage of the race.
Bradley Wiggins is still leading the general classifications after the third stage of Paris-Nice 2012, with a healthy lead of 6 seconds over Levi Leipheimer.
Tejay Van Garderen, Sylvain Chavanel and Maxime Monfort achieved the next three positions. Valverde has now jumped up to the sixth overall position after the stage 3 classifications.
Tejay Van Garderen, Rigoberto Uran Uran and Davide Malacarne were the top three young riders on the day.
Alejandro is now leading the point’s classifications with a total number of 39 points while Bradley Wiggins, Tom Boonen and Maxime Monfort claimed the next three positions.
The cyclists are now getting ready for the 183 kilometre stage 4 scheduled at Brive-la-Gaillarde-Rodez on March 7th, 2012.
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