Luis Leon Sanchez wins the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian 2012
Luis Leon Sanchez of Rabobank Cycling Team continued his tremendous form and secured yet another victory at the Clasica Ciclista de San Sebastian 2012.
The cyclist completed the 234 kilometre race in an impressive time of 5 hours, 55 minutes and 34 seconds and grabbed the first spot at the Spanish classic.
Sanchez opened his 2012 winning account with a first place finish at the National Time Trial Championships 2012.
He also bagged stages at the Paris-Nice, Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Tour de France and the Tour de Romandie 2012.
The Spaniard rode brilliantly during the Tour de Romandie and managed to secure the tenth overall spot after the final general classifications.
Simon Gerrans of Team Orica GreenEdge fell 7 seconds short and occupied the second spot with Gianni Meersman of Team Lotto Belisol at the third spot.
Christophe Le Mevel of Team Garmin-Sharp, Bauke Mollema of Team Rabobank, Mauro Santambrogio of Team BMC and Mads Christensen of Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank occupied the fourth, the fifth and the sixth positions in the respective order.
Gerrans was content with his second place finish after his 11th place finish during the 2011 edition of the race.
"I'm pretty content with second place," said Gerrans, after the podium presentation.
"Obviously it would have been great to sprint for the victory instead, but San Sebastian is my first race back after taking a short break after the Olympics”.
"There were still plenty of guys attacking from behind who wanted to bridge across to Sanchez, but there was no organized chase to bring him back," Gerrans explained.
"When he still had a few seconds in the last three kilometres, I knew we weren't going to catch him and that our race was for second at that point”.
Top ten finishers after the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian 2012 are as under,
1
Luis León Sánchez (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team
5:55:34
2
Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
0:00:07
3
Gianni Meersman (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
4
Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Garmin - Sharp
5
Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
6
Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) BMC Racing Team
7
Mads Christensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
8
Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team
9
Xavier Florencio Cabre (Spa) Katusha Team
10
Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - ISD
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