Joaquim Rodriguez seeks the Podium
Spanish contender Joaquim Rodriguez, riding for team Katusha, took his first ever Tour de France stage win in the 12th stage of the 2010 edition. The winner finished the 210.5km stage in the same time as runner-up Alberto Contador, four seconds ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov and ten seconds ahead of a group of five other top contenders, including reigning overall leader Andy Schleck.
The 12th was one of the most difficult stages in this year’s Tour. The five-foot-five Spaniard was the national road-race champion in 2007, but has never ridden in the Tour before. The prestigious 3.1km Jalabert climb, named after Laurent Jalabert, who nearly defeated 5-time Tour winner Miguel Induráin at the same summit in stage 12 of the 1990 Tour, was won by Contador. The climb gave way to a final sprint kilometer to the finish line in the Mende aerodrome, where Rodriguez managed to dart ahead 150m from the finish.
“I might be small, but my list of victories isn’t too bad,” said Rodriguez, who was formerly known as a support rider for Caisse d’Epargne team leader Alejandro Valverde, who dominated at last year’s Vuelta a Espana.
Now with Katusha, Rodriguez has taken on more of a leading role than he has had in the past, which gave him the opportunity of finishing second behind Cadel Evans at the Fleche Wallonne this year. He caught the Tour leaders’ peloton while climbing the final ascent. The attack was countered by Contador and the two stage leaders left the peloton behind.
“I came here to look at the stage before the Tour and liked the look of it, although I knew it would be pretty hard,” he said. “But when Contador came across to me I knew I could resist his attack.”
The Catalonian’s win on the 12th stage has earned him an eighth place overall, four minutes and 58 seconds behind Schleck.
“My aim before the Tour was to win a stage and finish as high up as possible in the general classification,” said Rodriguez. “That’s one of my aims crossed off and I hope to keep fighting for a top finish. I’ve been a professional for 10 years now, so it was high time I rode the world’s biggest bike race.”
The Tour debutant said before the Tour that he aimed to win at least one stage and to leave a mark in the general classification. The 31-year old competitor has already done just that, and has proved himself to be a rider worth following in the Pyrenees. The ever-optimistic cyclist was seen talking with Contador as they approached the finish.
"I knew it was a great opportunity for me because I was sure that I was faster than him in the sprint," he said. "I knew the climb well because I did Paris-Nice and then I came back to do a reconnaissance later on, so that I knew it even better. Today I rode it perfectly. I knew that the best thing was to hold back before making an attack, and then I had to hold on when Contador came across and attacked me. That's what I managed to do and I was able to beat him."
The Katusha team leader is very happy in his new role. He aims to retain his form into the final week of the race and climb as high in the overall rankings as possible, which he says will take precedence now that he has a stage win under his belt. He admits that he doesn’t have much Tour experience, and while he believes he is the faster cyclist compared to Contador, he doesn’t expect to finish the race ahead of his fellow Spaniard.
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