Oscar Freire wins the third stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia 2012
Oscar Freire of Team Katusha claimed his second win of the season as the Spaniard overcame all the favourites during the third stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia 2012.
He crossed the finish-line in the fastest time of 3 hours, 41 minutes and 55 seconds to climb the top podium position during the 157.1 kilometre chase to Las Gabias on Wednesday.
Daniel Schorn, Michael Matthews, Marco Marcato and Simon Geschke secured the second, third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
The 36-year-old was overwhelmed with the victory and admired his team for the support during the third day of racing at the Spanish race.
He briefed, "Today the team worked really well for me, we managed to keep a high rhythm and not so many riders could stay with us. Regarding the sprint, I knew the last, difficult bend was more important than the last straight, which was downhill".
Luis Angel Mate and David Lelay grabbed the first and the second sprints of the race while Steven Kruijswijk, David Lelay and Yannick Talabardon succeeded at the first, second and third mountains category of the race.
Oscar’s first win of the season came during the UCI inaugural event, The Santos Tour Under when he dominated the fourth stage of the race.
He voiced, "I feel in a good shape. Obviously I'm not at my best level, because there's no need to be at this time of the season, but I'm working well in order to be at my top later".
Alejandro Valverde, Rein Taaramae and Jerome Coppel started the race with the top overall position after the stage 2 classifications.
The trio continued its dominance and Valverde is still leading the stage 3 classifications with an edge of 3 seconds over Rein Taaramae.
Oscar Freire is leading the point’s classifications with a total number of 39 points in his pocket.
Michael Matthews and Rein Taaramae are at the second and the third positions, with 39 and 26 points, respectively.
Luis Angel Mate is leading the Sprint classifications while Mickael Buffaz is leading the Mountains category after the end of the third stage.
Team Katusha has jumped up from the fifth position to the fourth overall spot after the stage 3 classifications.
Team RadioShack-Nissan, Team Movistar, Rabobank Cycling Team and Team Euskaltel-Euskadi are holding the top four spots.
With one more stage to go, Alejandro Valverde is looking ahead to claim his first overall win of the season.
He finished second at the opening race of the 2012 season, the Santos Tour Under and also bagged the fifth stage of the race.
Valverde will keep a close eye on his main competitors during the 135.7 kilometre stage 4, to ensure the first overall win for the Spanish side, Team Movistar.
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