Spain’s three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Rabobank won the 11th stage of the Tour of Spain on Wednesday, a 178km ride from Calahorra to Burgos, as Egoi Martinez of Euskaltel retained the overall lead.
Martinez leads US racer Levi Leipheimer by 11 seconds and has a 32-second lead over favorite and last year’s Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.
Freire just edged out Belgian Tom Boonen on the line in a sprint battle for the finish on a day when the return of retired seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong to the sport was the talk of the peloton.
PHOTO: EPA
Freire, preparing hard for the world championships in Italy later this month, was pleased his form appears to have appeared just at the right time.
“Today was the first day I really felt good and I took advantage of that. Yesterday, I just wasn’t in the groove. It was a good sprint, but I kept on Boonen’s wheel and I proved to be the stronger,” Freire said.
But he added that he believed where the worlds were concerned he would still have to keep a close eye on two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini, who took the sixth stage in the Vuelta.
“He’ll be a tough one to beat,” the Spaniard said.
Wednesday’s stage was one of transition coming off the mountains with just one third-category climb 40km out from the line, and thus made for the sprinters.
Freire and co attacked the finish with gusto, reigning in early escapees Serafin Martinez, Andriy Grivko and Jose Antonio Lopez Gil, who had earlier established a seven-minute lead after breaking away around the 33km mark.
The news that Armstrong will soon be back in the saddle dominated conversations on the margins of the race and reporters made sure they tracked down Astana manager Belgian Johan Bruyneel, the former director of Armstrong’s US Postal and Discovery Channel teams.
At the finish line Bruyneel repeated comments to Spanish television that he did not see Armstrong riding for another team other than Astana, while expressing doubts as to the veteran’s ability to compete at the top following a three-year absence.
“Contador is currently the best and Armstrong was the best — but after three years’ absence he will have to show he can return to the level of Contador. Three years is a long time,” Bruyneel said.
Olympic road champion Samuel Sanchez, on the other hand, said that Armstrong’s return was “good news for cycling,” and he added he thought the American “is well capable of winning the Tour [de France] again.”
Freire agreed.
“Age is not an impediment — he is a stubborn racer and when he gets it into his head he has the force of personality to do it,” he said of the Texan.
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