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| MILRAMs Luke Roberts - Photo: Roth |
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Roberts ends Vuelta a Murcia in ninth place
Murcia: 07/03/2010
Roger Kluge ended Team MILRAM's appearance in the Vuelta a Murcia (March 3-7 / UCI 2.1) on Sunday with a seventh place stage finish. The Beijing Olympics silver medalist was best MILRAM finisher in the mass sprint of the fifth stage after 121 kilometers from Redyser and Murcia, which was won by Dutch rider Theo Bos (Cervelo). Second and third places went to Australian Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Austrian Daniel Schorn (Team NetApp).
In the final rankings of the 30th edition of the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia, MILRAM veteran Luke Roberts, who on Friday impressively won the Queen stage, acheived the hoped-for Top Ten placing, finishing ninth overall, behind winner Frantisek Rabon (HTC-Columbia).
„Our tactics worked out. We didn't want to take any risks today, were attentive from the start and in every escape group. Unfortunately it didn't work out for Roger Kluge in the mass sprint. He overestimated his chances and was in the wind too early,“ commented Directeur Sportif Ralf Grabsch. „We can be very satisfied with the stage win on the Queen stage and Luke Roberts' ninth place. Our results here will have their effect on our team in Tirreno-Adriatico. When the guys hear how well we did in Murcia, then they will be more motivated in Italy. I am sure that the momentum will carry over into the next races.“
Going into the Vuelta a Murcia, the German ProTour team MILRAM could point to multiple Top Ten finishes this year: Luke Roberts (5th) and Markus Fothen (10th) in the Tour Down Under, Roger Kluge (4th) in the Tour of Qatar, Niki Terpstra (6th) in the Tour of Oman and Linus Gerdemann as ninth in the Vuelta a Andalucia.
The victory in the final stage had no effect on the overall rankings. Czech rider Frantisek Rabon used a place in the field to take his first overall stage race win in Murcia. The HTC-Columbia rider beat last year's winner, Russian Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Briton Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) by 38 and 53 seconds. The best MILRAM finisher was Olympic winner Luke Roberts, who on Friday won the Queen stage. He finished in ninth place, 1:42 minutes down.
A nine-man escape group including MILRAM's Dominik Roels dominated the first part of the final stage. As of km 25, Roels rode away with Frenchmen Nicolas Portal (Sky) and Alexandre Blain (Endura Racing), Pole Michal Golas (Vacansoleil), Irishman Philip Deignan (Cervélo), Swiss rider Gregory Rast (RadioShack), Kazakh Roman Kireyev (Astana) und the two Caja Rural riders Jose Herrada (Spain) and Oleg Chuzdha (Ukraine) for lead of up to three minutes. On the climb up to the highest point of the stage, the 408 meter high Alto Cabezo de la Plata (Category 2), Deignan, Chuzda and Blain got away again, while the peloton picked up its pace. 40 km before the finish, the trio had a lead of about two minutes. The three fought bravely to hang on ahead of the charging peloton, but shortly before the final kilometer, the escape was ended and the mass sprint set up.
Results stage 5:
1 Theo Bos (Ned) Cervélo TestTeam 2:43:35
2 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
3 Daniel Schorn (Aut) Team Netapp
4 Valentin Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana
5 Henning Bommel (Ger) German National Team
6 Russell Downing (GBr) Team Sky
7 Roger Kluge (Ger) Team MILRAM
8 Andreas Schillinger (Ger) Team Netapp
9 Manuel Anton (Spa) Spanish National Team
10 Ian Wilkilson (GBr) Endura Racing
Final Classification:
1 Frantisek Rabon (Cze) Team HTC - Columbia 16:01:24
2 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank +0:38
3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky +0:53
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack +0:57
5 Josep Jufre (Spa) Astana +1:21
6 Stef Clement (Ned) Rabobank +1:23
7 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack
8 Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank +1:41
9 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team MILRAM +1:42
10 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) CCC Polsat Polkowice +1:59
The stages:
03.03. 1. Etappe: San Pedro del Pinatar - San Pedro del Pinatar (166,5 km)
04.03. 2. Etappe: Calasparra - Caravaca de la Cruz (169,8 km)
05.03. 3. Etappe: Las Torres de Cotillas - Alhama de Murcia (166,5 km)
06.03. 4. Etappe: Alhama de Murcia - Alhama de Murcia (22 km/EZF)
07.03. 5. Etappe: Redyser (Murcia) - Murcia (121,1 km)
Total distance: 645,9 km
Team MILRAM for the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia: Roger Kluge (GER/Eisenhüttenstadt), Dominik Nerz (GER/Wangen), Luke Roberts (AUS/Kerpen), Dominik Roels (GER/Köln), Thomas Rohregger (AUT/Innsbruck), Björn Schröder (GER/Berlin), Peter Wrolich (AUT/Klagenfurt)
Directeur Sportif: Ralf Grabsch (GER)
=> Website of the Event
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