Tomas Alberio Wins the Tour of Rio
The 2010 Tour de Rio was raced in a circular route which began in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday July 28th and ended in the same city on Sunday August 1st. Tomas Alberio won the 139km opening stage to Angra dos Reis, followed it with a second win in Stage 2, and led the event right to the very end, to return to Rio de Janeiro as the Tour Champion.
The first stage was led by an 18-man breakaway, which shrunk throughout the stage to become a four-man sprint to the finish line. Alberio took the stage win, followed by Chris Jones, Renato Santos, Mauricio Morandi, and Kenneth Hanson, in that order. Jones wore the green jersey in the second stage.
"I'm not sure if it was bad legs from the long travel, or it was a hard course but none of us felt great today," said Jones. "I found the right break about halfway through the stage. It was nice to get some time on the other general classification guys before the climbing starts tomorrow."
Alberio then took another victory in the 161km Stage 2 from Volta Redonda to Tres Rios. Hanson finished second to take over the green jersey from his Type 1 teammate Chris Jones, who stood 14 seconds behind the leader overall.
"I feel good and I'm climbing pretty well," said Hanson. "Chris is riding really well. He was impressive at the Cascade Cycling Classic last week. So if I have good legs, I'll help him as much as I can."
Sergio Casanova took a sprint win ahead of a bunch finish in Friday’s 157km Stage 3 to Nova Friburgo. Alberio finish 3rd and Hanson finished 4th, four seconds behind the leader, and Jones finished 15th in the same time.
Team Type 1 continued to put on a show when Aldo Ino Ilesic won the 138km Stage 4 to Cabo Frio in a sprint finish, earning him the distinction of being the first Type 1 rider to win on three continents; six victories in the US and one in Mexico, plus three stage wins at the Tour du Maros in North Africa.
Halfway through the fourth stage, a high-speed descent resulted in a major crash including Alberio, the race leader, and Renato Santos, 3rd place overall. Santos had to abandon the race, but the peloton waited for the leader, letting Alberio make his way back to the race from a six-minute gap. Chris Jones stood in second place, 18 seconds behind Alberio, but his Team Type 1 director, Vassili Davidenko, explained that waiting was the honourable thing to do.
"Chris didn't want to take the jersey under those conditions," said Davidenko. "We want to win the race, but in a way that we can be proud."
Aldo Ino Ilesic went on to win the 161km final stage ahead of his teammate Jones, neither of whom could dethrone Alberio from the overall lead.
"This was really a successful trip," said Davidenko. "It was logistically tough, but successful and today was a great example of that."
Hanson crashed in the last three kilometers of Stage 4 and never managed to win a stage, but he finished fourth in the final stage, which narrowly earned him a top-5 finish overall.
"As we were coming into the last 150 metres and I was starting my sprint, I saw four motorbikes behind those two guys spread all across the road," said Hanson. "I've never been more frustrated leaving a race. Yesterday, I thought I was going to win but a guy knocked me off Aldo's wheel when I wasn't expecting it. I cracked my bike, tumbled on my back and scraped up my knee."
Tags: