Robert Gesink wins the seventh stage of the Amgen Tour of California
Robert Gesink was long overdue to register his first victory of the season and the Dutch just found a perfect venue to receive the honours.
The cyclist showed tremendous legs during the stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California and bagged his first victory of the 2012 season.
He crossed the finish line in an impressive time of 3 hours, 37 minutes and 8 seconds and climbed the top podium spot.
Darwin Atapuma Hurtado of Team Colombia-Coldeportes finished 14 second behind and made it through to the third podium spot.
Joseph Dombrowski of Team Bontrager Livestrong, Thomas Danielson of Team Garmin-Barracuda and Christopher Horner of Team RadioShack-Nissan finished at the fourth, the fifth and the sixth positions.
The Dutch was happy after registering his first victory of the season and is determined to make full use of his good form during the remaining part of the season.
It is the first victory for the 25-year-old at the Californian race since 2008, the cyclist outsprinted Levi Leipheimer that year after a marvellous sprinting battle between the two riders.
He explained, “I had a nice victory over here four years ago, and I am really happy to be back at this level after a difficult year”.
“I lost my dad a bit more than a year ago, and felt dead myself. Then I became a dad”.
“Emotionally it was a really difficult year, and now to be back at the highest level and beat guys like Horner, Zabriskie and Tejay [Van Garderen], it's incredible", he concluded.
"I'm back, I've been working really, really hard the last months. It didn't always work out in the beginning and that's difficult on an athlete,” he concluded.
George Bennett wins the opening sprint of the race while George Bennett, Darwin Atapuma Hurtado and Robert Gesink succeeded during the three opening mountains of the race.
Joseph Dombrowski of Team Bontrager Livestrong, Wilco Kelderman of Team Rabobank and Romain Bardet of Team AG2R La Mondiale were the top three young riders on the day.
Gesink is now leading the stage7 classifications with an impressive margin of 46 seconds over David Zabriskie of Team Garmin-Barracuda.
Thomas Danielson, Tejay Van Garderen and Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo hold the next four positions after the stage 7 classifications.
With one more stage to go, Robert is a definite favourite to enjoy the top overall position at the race.
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