Daniel Martin wins ninth stage as Bauke Mollema takes overall lead in Vuelta a Espana 2011
Garmin-Cervelo team’s Daniel Martin took his first grand tour ninth stage victory in Vuelta a Espana 2011 on Sunday, August 28. Bauke Mollema took overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Villacastin and ended in Sierra de Bejar. La Covatilla. The 25-year-old Irish cyclists took the total of 4 hours, 52 minutes and 14 seconds to cover the distance of 179.5 kilometres.
Recently, Martin took first place in Giro della Toscana and grabbed the runner-up spot in Tour of Poland. He also took third place in Tour of Catalunya.
In the final kilometres the Irish showed his powerful skill when he hit the slopes in La Covatilla and easily beat Bauke Mollema of Rabobank Cycling. Juan Jose Cobo Acebo of Geox-TMC was in third place with the difference of 3 seconds.
With 45 kilometres to go, Sebastian Lang was the first cyclists who instigated the move and was quickly joined by Jose Vicente Toribio, Pim Ligthart and Martijn Keizer. The peloton working well together while Martin launched an attacked in the 5 kilometres
and followed by Nicolas Roche of Ag2r-La Mondiale.
Both of them showed a good effort together until Roche lost contact while Nibali increased his pace and jumped away and caught the lone leader. The chasing group tried to catch the duo and also creating difficulty for Rodriguez. Before the finish, Rodriguez
lost contact with the chasers.
In the final kilometres, Wiggins increased his pace and managed to take seconds on Rodriguez and was joined by Jakob Fuglsang and Jurgen Van den Broeck. Sebastian Lang took the first two intermediate sprints. Martin rounded him and followed by the two cyclists
including Mollema and Cobo. Finally, Martin crossed the finish line ahead of the other cyclists without any difficulty.
Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) took sixth place with difference of 11 seconds ahead of Rein Taaramae.
Rabobank Mollema took the overall standing with timing of 37 hours, 11 minutes and 17 seconds and Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver was runner-up with 1 second down to Nederland.
Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas-Cannondale finished third with the difference of 9 seconds ahead of Fredrik Kessiakoff of Pro Astana. Daniel Martin took the overall mountain standing with 25 points ahead of Montaguti.
The next stage will run in Salamanca and all the cyclists will cover the distance of 40 kilometres.
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