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27th Vuelta a Murcia - 2.1
Spain, March 4-8, 2008
Main Page Results Overall standings Next Stage
Stage 1 - March 4: San Pedro del Pinatar - Lorca, 197.3km
Brown blows past other sprinters to take stage and race lead
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Rabobank sprinter Graeme Brown took his second win of this season in the opening stage of the Tour of Murcia on Tuesday. The 28 year-old Australian easily bested Euskaltel-Euskadi fast man Koldo Fernández and 22 year-old Spaniard Aitor Perez (Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo) on the 197.3-kilometre stage from San Pedro del Pinatar to Lorca. By taking the first stage, he also donned the leader's jersey.
Rabobank team manager Frans Maassen was pleased with the team's win after Brown and team-mate Oscar Freire botched the finale of the Clasica de Almeria on Sunday and were denied victory by CSC's JJ Haedo. "It is a nice revenge for Sunday," said Maassen, who also was impressed with Brown's finish on a tough stage. "The course was not as difficult as indicated by the course profile, but it was still extremely tricky. Graeme would not have been able to do this two years ago. Now he knows how to ride up a hill and he is also a master in riding in echelons, which was very useful today because of the hard winds."
The day's five hour journey was dominated by a two-man breakaway that broke clear early in the stage and gained nearly sixteen minutes before the sprinters' teams got to work to bring down the gap. José Antonio Lopez Gil (Andalucía - Cajasur) and Alexander Serov (Tinkoff Credit Systems) traded off primes, with Lopez taking the lead in the mountains classification atop the category three Cola del Caballo, the only climb of the day, while Serov donned the jersey of best sprinter by taking the two intermediate sprints on offer.
The pair put in a tremendous effort to resist being caught by the peloton, valiantly battling the strong winds and putting the chasers under pressure. But with three kilometres to go, the catch was made and Rabobank was able to capitalize on the bunch sprint to achieve its goal for the race.
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"Our starting point was to win a victory, and now we have done that already," said Maassen. "We did not really come here for the general classification." While many of the stages are quite mountainous and will likely rule out another bunch sprint, Maassen thinks stage three could give the team another chance at victory. "I said before we started that we would have to strike in the first, third or fifth stage. Tomorrow there will certainly not be a mass sprint, but there will be on Thursday. However, we cannot make it happen alone, we need the help of other teams for that as well because Bram de Groot is not here."
Last year's winner Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) showed the attentiveness of a rider gunning for the overall classification by finishing well up in the bunch sprint in 21st place, but last year's Tour de France victor Alberto Contador was also present at the front, rolling in at 12th place. In tomorrow's 152.5-kilometre stage from Calasparra to Totana, Contador and Valverde will have their chance to battle in the mountains as the peloton faces the third category Alto de Pliego before hitting two category one climbs, the Alto de Espuña (700 m) and finally the Alto de Collado Bermejo (1,150 m) with 30km to go in the stage.
Photography
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Images by cyclinginside.com
- Graeme Brown (Rabobank) wins the sprint in the first stage in Murcia.
- Brown prevailed in windy conditions and made use of his skills riding in an echelon, which he had acquired rather recently, according to his DS Frans Maassen.
- The riders are getting ready for the first stage.
- Valverde is being asked where his cleats are.
Results
1 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 5.00.11 (39.44 km/h) 2 Koldo Fernández (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 3 Aitor Perez Arrieta (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 4 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 5 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 6 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 7 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC 8 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana 9 Xabat Otxotorena (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 10 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 11 Gustavo Dominguez Lemos (Spa) Karpin Galicia 12 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 13 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 14 César Quiteiro (Por) Liberty Seguros 15 Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Tinkoff Credit Systems 16 Inaki Isasi Flores (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 17 Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 18 Manuel Vazquez Hueso (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 19 Oleg Chuzhda (Ukr) Contentpolis - Murcia 20 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 21 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 22 Luis Pasamontes Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 23 Antonio Colom Mas (Spa) Astana 24 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 25 Yon Bru Pascal (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 26 Ignacio Sarabia Diaz (Mex) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 27 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 28 Eloy Teruel Rovira (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 29 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 30 Evgeny Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 31 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne 32 Francisco Perez Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 33 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Karpin Galicia 34 David Garcia Dapena (Spa) Karpin Galicia 35 David Herrero Llorente (Spa) Karpin Galicia 36 Isidro Nozal Vega (Spa) Liberty Seguros 37 Massimo Codol (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 38 Jorge Azanza Soto (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 39 Rui Miguel Sousa (Por) Liberty Seguros 40 Serguei Klimov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 41 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) Team CSC 42 Alexander Khatuntsev (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 43 Enrique Salgueiro Alonso (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 44 Iban Velasco Murillo (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 45 Iban Mayoz (Spa) Karpin Galicia 46 Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Spa) Astana 47 Carlos Castano Panadero (Spa) Karpin Galicia 48 José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Caisse d'Epargne 49 Walter Fernando Pedraza Morales (Col) Tinkoff Credit Systems 50 Ricardo Serrano González (Spa) Tinkoff Credit Systems 51 Nuno Ribeiro (Por) Liberty Seguros 52 Michael Blaudzun (Den) Team CSC 53 Joan Horrach Rippoll (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 54 Tom Leezer (Ned) Rabobank 55 Adrian Palomares Villaplana (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 56 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 57 Claudio José Casas Gallego (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 58 José Luis Carrasco Gamiz (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 59 Francesco Masciarelli (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 60 Josu Mondelo (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 61 Hernani Broco (Por) Liberty Seguros 62 Javier Etxarri Marin (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 63 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 64 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) Astana 65 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Astana 66 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Rabobank 67 Julian Sanchez Pimienta (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 68 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team CSC 69 Volodymir Gustov (Ukr) Team CSC 70 Jesus Ramirez Torres (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 71 Sergio Domínguez Muñoz (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 72 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Astana 73 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 74 Josu Agirre Aseginolaza (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 75 Branislau Samoilau (Blr) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 76 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 77 José Antonio Redondo Ramos (Spa) Karpin Galicia 78 Iñigo Cuesta López (Spa) Team CSC 79 Antonio Jesús (Por) Liberty Seguros 80 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank 81 Gonzalo Zambrano Calderon (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 82 Diego Milán Jiménez (Spa) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 83 Dario Andriotto (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 0.16 84 Kasper Klostergaard Larsen (Den) Team CSC 0.46 85 José Antonio Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 1.38 86 Jose Ruiz Sanchez (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 87 Jan Boven (Ned) Rabobank 2.28 88 Delio Fernández Cruz (Spa) Karpin Galicia 7.24 89 Jesus Rosendo Prado (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 90 Koldo Gil Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 91 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana 92 Fabien Patanchon (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 93 Dimitri Kozontchuk (Rus) Rabobank 94 Jesus Cobelo Fojo (Spa) Karpin Galicia 95 Francisco Terciado Sacedo (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo Points 1 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 25 pts 2 Koldo Fernández (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 20 3 Aitor Perez Arrieta (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 16 4 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 14 5 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 12 6 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 10 7 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC 9 8 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana 8 9 Xabat Otxotorena (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 7 10 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 6 11 Gustavo Dominguez Lemos (Spa) Karpin Galicia 5 12 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 4 13 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 3 14 César Quiteiro (Por) Liberty Seguros 2 15 Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Tinkoff Credit Systems 1 Mountains Cola del Caballo 1 José Antonio Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 3 pts 2 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 2 3 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Astana 1 Sprints Torre Pacheco 1 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 3 pts 2 José Antonio Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 2 3 Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 1 Los Ventorrillos 1 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 3 pts 2 José Antonio Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 2 3 Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 1 Teams 1 Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 15.00.33 2 Tinkoff Credit Systems 3 Euskaltel - Euskadi 4 Astana 5 Contentpolis - Murcia 6 Caisse d'Epargne 7 Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 8 Liberty Seguros 9 Karpin Galicia 10 Team CSC 11 Rabobank 12 Andalucía - Cajasur General classification after stage 1 1 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 5.00.11 2 Koldo Fernández (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 3 Aitor Perez Arrieta (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 4 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 5 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 6 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 7 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC 8 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana 9 Xabat Otxotorena (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 10 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 11 Gustavo Dominguez Lemos (Spa) Karpin Galicia 12 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 13 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 14 César Quiteiro (Por) Liberty Seguros 15 Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Tinkoff Credit Systems 16 Inaki Isasi Flores (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 17 Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 18 Manuel Vazquez Hueso (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 19 Oleg Chuzhda (Ukr) Contentpolis - Murcia 20 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 21 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 22 Luis Pasamontes Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 23 Antonio Colom Mas (Spa) Astana 24 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 25 Yon Bru Pascal (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 26 Ignacio Sarabia Diaz (Mex) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 27 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 28 Eloy Teruel Rovira (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 29 Massimiliano Gentili (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 30 Evgeny Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 31 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne 32 Francisco Perez Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 33 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Karpin Galicia 34 David Garcia Dapena (Spa) Karpin Galicia 35 David Herrero Llorente (Spa) Karpin Galicia 36 Isidro Nozal Vega (Spa) Liberty Seguros 37 Massimo Codol (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 38 Jorge Azanza Soto (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 39 Rui Miguel Sousa (Por) Liberty Seguros 40 Serguei Klimov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 41 Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) Team CSC 42 Alexander Khatuntsev (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 43 Enrique Salgueiro Alonso (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 44 Iban Velasco Murillo (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 45 Iban Mayoz (Spa) Karpin Galicia 46 Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Spa) Astana 47 Carlos Castano Panadero (Spa) Karpin Galicia 48 José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Caisse d'Epargne 49 Walter Fernando Pedraza Morales (Col) Tinkoff Credit Systems 50 Ricardo Serrano González (Spa) Tinkoff Credit Systems 51 Nuno Ribeiro (Por) Liberty Seguros 52 Michael Blaudzun (Den) Team CSC 53 Joan Horrach Rippoll (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 54 Tom Leezer (Ned) Rabobank 55 Adrian Palomares Villaplana (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 56 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 57 Claudio José Casas Gallego (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 58 José Luis Carrasco Gamiz (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 59 Francesco Masciarelli (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 60 Josu Mondelo (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 61 Hernani Broco (Por) Liberty Seguros 62 Javier Etxarri Marin (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 63 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 64 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) Astana 65 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Astana 66 Thomas Dekker (Ned) Rabobank 67 Julian Sanchez Pimienta (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 68 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team CSC 69 Volodymir Gustov (Ukr) Team CSC 70 Jesus Ramirez Torres (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 71 Sergio Domínguez Muñoz (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 72 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Astana 73 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 74 Josu Agirre Aseginolaza (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 75 Branislau Samoilau (Blr) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 76 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 77 José Antonio Redondo Ramos (Spa) Karpin Galicia 78 Iñigo Cuesta López (Spa) Team CSC 79 Antonio Jesús (Por) Liberty Seguros 80 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank 81 Gonzalo Zambrano Calderon (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 82 Diego Milán Jiménez (Spa) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 83 Dario Andriotto (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 0.16 84 Kasper Klostergaard Larsen (Den) Team CSC 0.46 85 José Antonio Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 1.38 86 Jose Ruiz Sanchez (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 87 Jan Boven (Ned) Rabobank 2.28 88 Delio Fernández Cruz (Spa) Karpin Galicia 7.24 89 Jesus Rosendo Prado (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 90 Koldo Gil Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 91 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana 92 Fabien Patanchon (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 93 Dimitri Kozontchuk (Rus) Rabobank 94 Jesus Cobelo Fojo (Spa) Karpin Galicia 95 Francisco Terciado Sacedo (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo Points classification 1 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 25 pts 2 Koldo Fernández (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 20 3 Aitor Perez Arrieta (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 16 4 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 14 5 Francisco José Ventoso Alberdi (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 12 6 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 10 7 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC 9 8 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana 8 9 Xabat Otxotorena (Spa) Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 7 10 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 6 11 Gustavo Dominguez Lemos (Spa) Karpin Galicia 5 12 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 4 13 Arnaud Coyot (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne 3 14 César Quiteiro (Por) Liberty Seguros 2 15 Vasili Kiryienka (Blr) Tinkoff Credit Systems 1 Mountains classification 1 José Antonio Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 3 pts 2 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 2 3 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Astana 1 Sprints classification 1 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems 6 pts 2 José Antonio Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 4 3 Pablo Urtasun Perez (Spa) Liberty Seguros 2 Best Murcian rider classification 1 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 5.00.11 2 Eloy Teruel Rovira (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia 3 Francisco Perez Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 4 Claudio José Casas Gallego (Spa) Andalucía - Cajasur 5 Sergio Domínguez Muñoz (Spa) Contentpolis - Murcia Teams classification 1 Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo 15.00.33 2 Tinkoff Credit Systems 3 Euskaltel - Euskadi 4 Astana 5 Contentpolis - Murcia 6 Caisse d'Epargne 7 Acqua Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 8 Liberty Seguros 9 Karpin Galicia 10 Team CSC 11 Rabobank 12 Andalucía - Cajasur
