Greipel takes last stage at Tour of Britain
Michael Albasini has won the Tour of Britain after taking the yellow jersey by winning stage three in Swansea and holding on to it until the end of the eighth and final stage in London. He managed to finish 1:05 ahead of runner-up and stage seven winner
Borut Bozic and 1:10 ahead of stage two winner Greg Henderson in third, despite losing three of his teammates halfway through the race to a sickness which very nearly took him out as well.
"I feel perfect; I'm very happy about this victory. It's a really important victory for me because it's the first one this season," said Albasini. "Two days after my stage win I was a little bit sick and lost power and was nearly ready to go home like Tony
Martin had done, so I'm really happy that I could defend the jersey thanks to my team mates."
While the top three riders in the race each won a single stage, Albasini’s HTC-Columbia teammate Andre Greipel was the man who dominated the finish line, winning three of the tour’s eight stages, including the first and the last. The triple stage-winner
finished the final stage in a bunch sprint ahead of Sebastien Haedo and Roger Hammond, taking his 20th victory of season.
“I’m a little tired after a long season but I’m happy. I’ve beaten my number of wins from 2009 and I think that is a good achievement,” said Greipel to
Cyclingnews. “The Tour of Britain is my last race with HTC-Columbia and so it's a moment of change for me. Now I’ve got a few days at home to recover and train a little and then I’ll travel to Australia. It’s a long way to go for a race but I like
Australia, I’ve been successful there in the past.”
Greipel will be transferring to Omega Pharma-Lotto for the 2011 season. With the World Championships as his end-season goal, where he will be captaining the German national team, there are no more races he plans to ride with HTC-Columbia. As a sprint specialist,
he has been limited on the team, which consistently presents Mark Cavendish as their sprinter in the major events.
“The biggest factor about changing teams was being able to ride the Tour de France. I think a rider of my level, with the success I’ve had, should be able to contest the sprints in the Tour de France but I’ve never been able to do that at HTC-Columbia. It’s
the same for Milan-San Remo. But I think I can do something in a race like that.”
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