Michael Albasini wins the first stage of the Volta a Catalunya 2012
Team GreenEdge continues its dominance at the International level of cycling, not through Simon Gerrans this time though.
It was Michael Albasini who secured the first stage win for the Australian team during the Volta A Catalunya 2012.
He crossed the finish line in a quickest time of 3 hours, 20 minutes and 4 seconds to claim the top spot at the race.
Anthony Delaplace, Nicolas Edet, Kenny Robert and Ben Gastauer finished at the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
The 31-year old was delighted to secure his first win with the new team and thanked his team for its support during the 138.9 kilometre opening stage of the race.
He noted, "It's great to get the win, the first win with a new team is always very special. I worked hard in the off season. To see this work pay off for me and the team is important".
"I realized if I could unload the other guys in the break, I had a good chance of making it to the finish, At that point, I wasn't sure if I could hold off the bunch chasing behind”.
“I had [Sports Director] Vittorio Algeri behind me giving me information and willing me onto the finish ", he concluded.
Timothy Duggan succeeded during the opening mountain category of the stage while Michael Albasini dominated at the second and the third events of the race. Albasini and Anthony Delaplace claimed the two opening sprints of the races.
Team GreenEdge is enjoying a tremendous start to its 2012 campaign. Simon Gerrans helped the side with the overall victories at the Santos Tour Down Under and the Milan-San Remo 2012.
Albasini is now leading the overall classifications with a lead of 42 seconds over Anthony Delaplace and 1 minute and 14 seconds over Nicolas Edet.
Team GreenEdge is leading the team’s classifications with Team Saur-Sojasun at the second and Team Cofidis at the third position.
Volta a Catalunya is the third oldest cycling race with its first edition back in 1911. Sebastià Masdeu succeeded during the first version of the race while Mariano Canardo holds the honour of winning it for a maximum number of 7 times.
Italian cyclist Michele Scarponi dominated the most recent version of the race back in 2011.
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