Marcel Kittel wins seventh stage as Chavanel celebrates overall win in Vuelta a Espana 2011
Skil-Shimano team’s Marcel Kittel won the seventh stage of Vuelta a Espana on Friday, August 26 and the victory was overshadowed by a horrific crash.
Kittel showed his good powerful skill in the final kilometres by easily beat previous stage winner Peter Sagan of Liquigas-Cannondale. Oscar Freire Gomez of Rabobank cycling finished third with the same timing of Kittel.
After the finish Kittel told the media, “I can’t describe the feeling of winning here, it’s wonderful. We’ve been invited here and it feels good to be able to pay the organiser back for the faith he’s had in us. To win a stage at a Grand Tour was a dream
for me and for Skil-Shimano.”
After few kilometres to go, the group of four cyclists made their first breakaway lead including Antonio Cabello (Andalucia), Steve Houanard (Ag2R), Luis Mate and Julien Fouchard (both Cofidis). All of them managed to took an advantage of nine minutes.
Antonio Cabello Baena managed to gain maximum points in first intermediate sprint ahead of Houanard while Steve attacked and took the second sprint while Mardones was in second place.
The crash happened in the final kilometres when Farrar touched wheels with Michal Golas and both of them went down, due to this Scarponi was one of about 15 cyclists to be thrown off his bike. Vincenzo Nibali also faced a crash while Farrar and Golas were
taken to hospital because of injuries and for an X-ray.
However, Kittel controlled the situation managed to get away from the crash for taking a victory. The 23-year-old German racing cyclists took the total of 4 hours, 47 minutes and 59 seconds to cover the distance of 185 kilometres.
Kittel further added, “At the end, it was my speed and my team, without a team, I wouldn’t have been able to show my speed to the world. I’m so proud of the team. I can trust these boys. They’ve worked at 120% for me today. They’ve done a perfect job.”
Quickstep cycling team’s Chavanel took the overall standing with the timing of 27 hours, 29 minutes and 12 seconds while Moreno Fernandez of Katusha was in second spot with 15 seconds down to Sylvain. Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas-Cannondale finished third
with the difference of 16 seconds.
The next stage will run in Talavera de la Reina and finished in San Lorenzo de El Escorial. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 183 kilometres.
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