February 20/12 10:28 am - Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol: Stage 1 full results, Routley 3rd

Posted by Editoress on 02/20/12
 

SpiderTech rider hangs on ahead of charging peloton

Sometimes a long breakaway does succeed.

Will Routley of Team SpiderTech p/b C10 finished third in the first stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia Monday after spending close to 200 km up the road in a break that barely hung on to the finish.

Routley was part of a four-rider group that took off in the first kilometre of the 197-km stage from Zahara de los Atunes to Benalmàdena, with little reaction from the peloton. Routley was joined by Javier Ramirez (Andalucia), Daniel Dominguez (Team NSP-Ghost) and Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis).

The quartet’s lead reached more than 11 minutes after 50 km before the the Project 1T4i teammates of race leader Patrick Gretsch started to pick up the pace in the main field.

The breakaway’s lead slowly dropped to 6 minutes, but 1T4i wasn’t getting any help so they stopped chasing with about 90 km to go, and the lead ballooned up to 11 minutes again.

The chase resumed once Saur-Sojasun and RadioShack-Nissan joined 1T4i on the front, but the gap was still two minutes with 15 km to go and the breakaway survived to the finish — barely: Ramirez scored a popular local victory over Angel Mate, just three seconds ahead of Routley, who was given the same time as the winner of the bunch sprint, three-time world champion Oscar Freire (Katusha). Dominguez was swept up by the peloton just before the finish.

“With 2 km to go we were playing around and I felt we’d get caught,” said Routley after the finish. “I attacked, it was risky but Mate was sprinting stronger than me — I noticed when we were going for KOMs. I thought it was my best shot at the stage and I think if I hadn’t created that acceleration we’d have been caught by the main field for sure.”

“It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes the early break actually makes it,” said team director Kevin Field. “That’s exactly what happened today.”

Because of the small time gaps, the stage had little effect on the overall standings. Routley will wear the Metas Volantes (intermediate sprint) jersey for Tuesday’s second stage because the classification leader, Mate, will be wearing the mountains jersey.

Courtesy SpiderTech p/b C10