Denis Menchov wins the 20th stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2012
Denis Menchov won the penultimate race of the Vuelta a Espana and secured his second victory of the 2012 season.
The Russian completed the 170.7 kilometre race in a total time of 4 hours, 48 minutes and 48 seconds and restricted the race favourites.
Richie Porte of Team Sky Procycling finished 17 seconds behind at the second position, with Kevin De Weert of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep, Fredrik Carl Wilhelm of Team Astana and Romain Sicard of Team Euskaltel-Euskadi achieving the third, fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
Menchov secured 25 UCI point during the race while Richie Porte of Team Sky Procycling Kevin De Weert of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep achieved the second and the third position with 20 and 16 points respectively.
Maxime Bouet of Team AG2R La Mondiale and Leonardo Fabio Duque of Team Cofidis won the first and the second sprints of the race.
Simon Clarke of Team Orica-GreenEdge succeeded during the first, second and the third mountain of the event.
Meanwhile David De La Fuente Rasilla of Team Caja Rural and Denis Menchov of Team Katusha secured the fourth and the fifth climbs of the event.
Alberto Contador finished 4 minutes and 15 seconds behind the race winner and continued his overall dominance.
He is now leading the stage 20 classifications with a margin of 1 minute and 16 seconds over Alejandro Valverde Belmonte, with Joaquim Rodriguez of Team Katusha at the third spot.
Christopher Froome, Daniel Moreno Fernandez and Robert Gesink occupy the fourth, fifth and the sixth positions in the respective order.
Rodriguez is leading the point’s classifications with a total number of 193 UCI points in his back pocket, while Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador achieved the second and the third positions with 189 and 161 points respectively.
Top 12 finishers after the stage 20 of the Vuelta a Espana 2012 areas below,
1
Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team
4:48:48
2
Richie Porte (Aus) Sky Procycling
0:00:17
3
Kevin De Weert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quickstep
0:00:42
4
Fredrik Carl Wilhelm Kessiakoff (Swe) Astana Pro Team
0:01:16
5
Romain Sicard (Fra) Euskaltel - Euskadi
0:01:39
6
Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
0:02:30
7
Maxime Bouet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
0:02:39
8
Simon Geschke (Ger) Argos-Shimano
0:03:14
9
Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team
0:03:31
10
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team
0:03:56
11
Tiago Machado (Por) Radioshack-Nissan
0:04:08
12
Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
0:04:15
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