24th Clasica de Almería - 1.1

Spain, March 1, 2009

2008 Results Results Past winners

Henderson claims Spanish sprint win

New Zealand's Greg Henderson, of Team Columbia, claimed a sprint victory at Sunday's Clasica de Almería. Henderson sprinted from a small group of breakaway riders to out-pace Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo) for the win.

"If I hadn't taken it, I would have felt like a right idiot," said Henderson. "We did so much work today, we really deserved to win."

"Craig Lewis and [Kanstantsin] Sivtzov started to wind things up, then Michael Albasini took over from 700 metres to 400 and finally Tony Martin brought me up to the ideal final speed," added Henderson. "I accelerated with about 200 metres to go, and though I sensed Brownie [Graeme Brown] was coming up I knew I was going to get it."

Henderson's first victory of 2009 came after the peloton was broken down by strong crosswinds mid-way through the 169 kilometre race. The split was aided by a strong Team Columbia presence at the front, with the American squad placing seven of its eight riders in the 25 person breakaway.

The group expanded in size as it caught the earlier lead group, before going on to finish the race nearly nine minutes ahead of the peloton. Henderson's win came from a group of six, while the remaining break away riders trickled through the finish over the following two minutes.

"What happened today was something very exceptional, something I've rarely seen in cycling," said Team Columbia sports director Tristan Hoffman. "For a team to work so well together and split the field apart like that with so many riders and then take it all the way through to the finish was simply amazing. Even when you've planned for it, it's not at all easy for it to happen."

Results - 169.4 km

1 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Columbia - Highroad           4.02.45 (41.870 km/h)
2 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank                                    
3 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo          
4 Javier Benitez (Spa) Contentpolis-Ampo                         
5 Rubén Pérez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                   
6 Vicent Jerome (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom                      
7 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - Highroad                 0.03
8 Luis León Sanchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                   
9 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) Team Saxo Bank                     0.06
10 Josep Jufre (Spa) Fuji-Servetto                               
11 Yury Trofimov (Rus) BBox Bouygues Telecom                     
12 Gustavo Cesar Veloso (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                    
13 Diego Milan Jimenez (Spa) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo      
14 Jose Pacheco Torres (Spa) Contentpolis-Ampo                   
15 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank                          
16 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                        
17 Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank                                 
18 Oleg Chuzhda (Ukr) Contentpolis-Ampo                          
19 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                      
20 Ángel Vallejo Dominquez (Spa) Andorra - Grandvalira           
21 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                     
22 Jesús del Nero Montes (Spa) Fuji-Servetto                     
23 Manuel Ortega Ocana (Spa) Andalucia - CajaSur                 
24 Dmitry Kozontchuk (Rus) Rabobank                              
25 Jaume Rovira Pons (Spa) Andorra - Grandvalira                 
26 Michael Morkov (Den) Team Saxo Bank                           
27 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                       
28 Carlos Nozal Vega (Spa) Liberty Seguros                   0.11
29 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne                     0.12
30 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank                                  
31 Michael Albasini (Swi) Team Columbia - Highroad               
32 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Team Columbia - Highroad        0.15
33 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team Columbia - Highroad              0.17
34 Rafael Serrano Fernandez (Spa) Contentpolis-Ampo              
35 Pierre Rolland (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom                0.20
36 Craig Lewis (USA) Team Columbia - Highroad                0.26
37 Francisco Perez Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne            0.28
38 Rui Sousa Barbosa (Por) Liberty Seguros                   0.30
39 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - Highroad             0.57
40 Manuel Cardoso (Por) Liberty Seguros                      1.32
41 Ricardo Serrano (Spa) Fuji-Servetto                       2.14
42 Serafín Martínez Acebedo (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                
43 Jose L Roldan Carmona (Spa) Andalucia - CajaSur           8.55
44 Manuel Calvente (Spa) Andalucia - CajaSur                     
45 José Lopez Gil (Spa) Andalucia - CajaSur                      
46 Angel Vicioso (Spa) Andalucia Cajasur                         
47 José Ruiz Sanchez (Spa) Andalucia - CajaSur                   
48 Jose Carrasco Ramirez (Spa) Andalucia - CajaSur               
49 Raúl Garcia de Mateo (Spa) Andorra - Grandvalira              
50 Jorge Azanza (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                        
51 Mikel Astarolza (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                     
52 Mathew Goss (Aus) Saxo Bank                                   
53 David Herrero (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                           
54 Gonzalo Rubunal Rios (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                    
55 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank                                  
56 Matthieu Sprick (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom                   
57 José Alberto Benitez (Spa) Fuji-Servetto                      
58 Carlos Castano Panadero (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                 
59 Marcos Garcia Fernandez (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                 
60 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank                                
61 Olivier Bonnaire (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom                  
62 Koos Moerenhout (Ned) Rabobank                                
63 Alberto Losada (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                         
64 Evgeny Sokolov (Rus) BBox Bouygues Telecom                    
65 Kai Reus (Ned) Rabobank                                       
66 Perrig Quemeneur (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom                  
67 Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Bbox Bouygues Telecom                   
68 Massimo Codol (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo            
69 Amets Txurruka (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                      
70 Dario Andriotto (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo          
71 Sergio Dominguez Munoz (Spa) Contentpolis-Ampo                
72 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                         
73 Nuno Ribeiro (Por) Liberty Seguros                            
74 Edgar Miguel Lemos Pinto (Por) Liberty Seguros                
75 Vicente Garcia de Mateo (Spa) Andorra - Grandvalira           
76 Hector Guerra Garcia (Spa) Liberty Seguros                    
77 Jose Joao Mendes (Por) Liberty Seguros                        
78 Igor Anton Hernández (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                
79 Beñat Intxausti (Spa) Fuji-Servetto                           
80 Didac Ortega (Spa) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo             
81 Rubén Plaza Molina (Spa) Liberty Seguros                      
82 Alessandro Donati (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo    9.04
83 Morris Possoni (Ita) Team Columbia - Highroad             9.45
84 Giuseppe Palumbo (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo         
85 Luca Paolini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo         9.47

Past winners

2008 Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) Team CSC
2007 Giuseppe Muraglia (Ita) Acqua Sapone-C. Moka
2006 Francisco Perez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears
2005 José Ivan Gutierrez (Spa) Illes Balears
2004 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere
2003 Luciano Pagliarini (Bra) Lampre
2002 Massimo Strazzer (Ita) Phonak Hearing System
2001 Tayeb Braikia (Den) Lotto-Adecco
2000 Isaac Galvez (Spa) Kelme Costa Blanca 176 kms in 4.36.51
1999 Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre-Daikin 188 kms in 5.34.51
1998 Mario Traversoni (Ita) Mercatone Uno-Bianchi 188 kms in 4.48.07
1997 Massimo Strazzer (Ita
1996 Wilfried Nelissen (Bel)
1995 Jean-Pierre Heynderickx (Bel)
1994 Johan Capiot (Bel)
1993 Vjatcheslav Ekimov (Rus)