Petacchi wins Vuelta's seventh stage
Veteran sprinter Alessandro Petacchi added yet another Grand-Tour stage win to his list of achievements in Friday’s seventh stage of the Vuelta a Espana.
Petacchi outsprinted HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish at the end of the stage to finish ahead of the British rider, with Juan-Jose Haedo of Saxo Bank claiming third place.
Lampre-Farnese Vini’s Petacchi was delighted with the victory, which comes after he and his family has been subject to extensive doping investigations after this year’s Tour de France.
“For 25 days I trained very little, so winning here makes me really happy,” the Italian told the press about his involuntary hiatus from training during the investigation. "Until yesterday I was so-so. I didn’t have the legs for yesterday’s climb and on the hills I’m still not at my best. In the finale I felt really good and my teammates were fantastic at bringing to an ideal position for the sprint. I think I did a great sprint. It’s always difficult to win sprints but it is particularly difficult to win here because of the number of fast riders that are competing in the Vuelta. I really needed this one.”
Another futile breakaway
A few riders broke out from the peloton in the early stages of Friday’s stage, which took riders from Murcia to Orihuela over 187km. Vladimir Isaichev, Martin Pedersen, Jorge Montenegro and Dominik Roels raced ahead only 2km into the stage.
The peloton, led by Lars Bak, David Zabriskie and Daniele Righi, narrowed the gap to the quartet on the climb up Puerto de Hondon after 117km.
Most riders in the peloton were able to keep up on the climb save for Team Sky’s Juan Antonio Flecha, who had caught the same virus that affected many of his teammates earlier in the week.
After 162km, Bak, Zabriskie and Righi were caught by the main pack as HTC-Columbia geared up to deliver Cavendish for the sprint finish.
Cavendish outmanoeuvred in the sprint
Cavendish looked likely to pounce, but Petacchi cleverly cut him out by veering to the right in the final stretch, earning the twentieth Vuelta stage win of his illustrious career.
“Getting twenty wins in a grand tour isn’t an easy,” the sprinter said. ”My 52 stage wins in the three grand tours at the age of 36 shows young riders that you can have a long and successful career but it also requires a lot of sacrifices.”
Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Philippe Gilbert finished 13th in the stage to retain his lead in the general classification.
He is trailed by Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Igor Anton and Katusha’s Joaquin Rodriguez in the overall standings. Both Rodriguez and Anton are 10 seconds behind Gilbert.
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