Germany’s Andre Greipel of Team Columbia dominated a bunch sprint to win the 16th stage of the Tour of Spain on Tuesday as Alejandro Valverde retained the race leader’s gold jersey.
Greipel soloed over the finish line of the 170km stage between Cordoba and Puertollano with his arms in the air in triumph after leaving his sprint rivals for dust in the closing meters.
After picking up his third stage from this year’s race, he said that pointing his fingers to the sky was to pay tribute to a lost friend, and his deceased grandfather.
PHOTO: AFP
“It’s a very important win for me, I very much wanted to get the victory today for a lot of reasons,” Greipel said. “I lost my best friend three years ago on this exact day, and also my grandfather died on this day, too.”
Moments earlier a crash halted the progress of the main peloton as several teams wound up the speed in anticipation of a bunch sprint for the finish line.
Caisse d’Epargne team leader Valverde managed to avoid the carnage and finished to retain his 31-second lead over Dutchman Robert Gesink of Rabobank in the overall standings.
The overall top five remained unchanged with Spain’s Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez, of Euskaltel, in third at 1:10, Italian Ivan Basso fourth at 1:28 and Cadel Evans of Australia fifth at 1:51.
Valverde, who has never won a major three-week Tour, is now expected to keep a tight grip on the gold jersey until the potential decider — the penultimate stage time trial over 26km in Toledo on Saturday.
“Fortunately I was able to avoid the crash and Madrid is getting nearer every day,” said Valverde, who appreciated staying out of trouble at the finish. “The last kilometers were very nervous with a lot of tension in the bunch because too many riders were trying to come back to the front to take part in the sprint.”
The three-week race, the third major Tour of the year after the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia, wraps up in Madrid on Sunday.
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