Daniel Moreno wins fourth stage as Chavanel takes overall lead in Vuelta A Espana 2011
Katusha team’s Daniel Moreno Fernandez took advantage in the final kilometres and won the fourth stage of Vuelta a Espana 2011 on Tuesday, August 23. Sylvain Chavanel took overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Baza and ended in Sierra Nevada. The 29-year-old Spanish professional road racing cyclists took the total of 4 hours, 51 minutes and 53 seconds to cover the distance of 172 kilometres.
Moreno told the media, “I knew I could produce a great performance because the course suited my characteristics. Before going after Sorensen, I talked with my team leader, Rodríguez. He thought I had good chance of winning today because I’m faster than the
Danish rider and told me to go for it.”
After 10 kilometres to go, the group of seven cyclists formed the first breakaway lead including, Guillaume Bonnafond, Matthew Busche (RadioShack), Yohan Bagot (Cofidis), Thomas Rohregger, Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), José Vicente Toribio and Koen de Kort
(Skil-Shimano).
With few kilometres to go, Koen de Kort led the breakaway cyclists while all of them gained an advantage of seven minutes over the peloton. De Kort took the first two climbs of the day while the race entered in Sierra Nevada the riders began to drop away.
Bagot was first to go and increased his pace and followed De Kort and Torobio.
With 10 kilometres remaining, the four leaders managed to gain more than minute as Vincenzo went to the front. Finally, Anton fell away after a few kilometres to go. In the final kilometres, the Spaniard managed to flash by on the Dane’s left and managed
to gain a gap. Saxo Bank-SunGard team’s Chris Anker Sorensen jumped across from the three breakaway cyclists but he failed to hold his pace when Moreno jumped hard and took his first grand tour stage victory.
He further added, “Despite my move up general classification, my job is still to help our leader to win the general classification, I think ‘Purito’ and me form a great partnership, I’m sure we can gain some more brilliant results in this Vuelta.”
Recently, Moreno took the runner-up spot in Vuelta a Burgos and grabbed eighth place in La Fleche Wallonne. He also took the second spot in Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia.
Quickstep cycling team’s Sylvain Chavanel took the overall standing with the timing of 13 hours, 19 minutes and 9 seconds. The stage winner’s Moreno was runner-up with 43 seconds and Jakob Fuglsang of Leopard Trek was in third place with 49 seconds down
to Chavanel.
The next stage will run in Sierra Nevada and end in Valdepeñas de Jaén and all the riders will cover the distance of 200 kilometres.
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