Philippe Gilbert wins the 19th stage of the Vuelta a Espana 2012
Philippe Gilbert secured the maximum number of victories in the past season and achieved the first overall position at the UCI Elite Men Individual rankings with 718 UCI points to his credit.
The 2012 season started off much slower for the Belgian, as he had to wait for as long as nine months to register his first victory of the year. The win came during the stage 9 of the Vuelta a Espana 2012.
It seems as if Gilbert has found the right form and his superb performance at the most recent stage 19 of the Spanish race was nothing short of spectacular. He secured the second stage of the event.
The 30-year-old took a total time of 4 hours, 56 minutes and 25 seconds to finish the 178.4 kilometre stage between Penafiel and La Lastrilla.
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte of Team Movistar, Daniel Moreno Fernandez of Team Katusha and Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver of Team Katusha finished at almost the same time and achieved the second, third and fourth positions respectively.
Philippe was overwhelmed after the win and thanked his teammates for their endless support throughout the event.
"I could feel the lactate building in my muscles heading up to the line, but you've got to keep going and not sit down because if you do then it’s over," he said.
"All wins are nice as it’s always very tough to win at this level. A lot of credit for this one should go to my team”.
“Klaas Lodewijk and Alessandro Ballan did great in the closing kilometres. When you have a big talent like Ballan working for you there’s no doubt you get extra motivation".
Aitor Galdos Alonso of Team Caja Rural and Alejandro Valverde Belmonte succeeded at the first and the second sprints of the race, while Cheng Ji received the most combative award after his heroic performance during the stage.
Alberto Contador Velasco still leads the overall classifications with an impressive margin of 1 minute and 35 seconds over Alejandro Valverde Belmonte of Team Movistar.
Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver of Team Katusha, Christopher Froome of Team Sky Procycling and Daniel Moreno Fernandez of Team Katusha occupied the third, fourth and fifth positions in the respective order.
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