Columbia-HTC's Andre Greipel celebrated his victory in the points jersey competition in the Tour of Spain with a bunch sprint win in the final stage into Madrid.

The German powered across the final finish line for his fouth stage win in the Vuelta, his first points jersey in a Grand Tour and his nineteenth victory of the 2009 season.
"The green jersey was very difficult to get because this was such a mountainous Vuelta, but in the build-up to the sprints I could count on a lot of support from my teammates, and that made all the difference," Greipel said afterwards. "I had the best lead-out of all of the sprinters here, particularly thanks to my [Columbia-HTC] teammates Marcel Sieberg and Greg Henderson.  I came to this Tour of Spain thinking I could maybe win one stage, and I came away with four and the team got five. Plus I won the points classification. That's amazing."

Talking about his final win in Madrid, Greipel said  "With two kilometres to go I was a bit far back, but [teammate] Greg Henderson did a brilliant job taking me through to the front end of the bunch.  It was a bit uphill so I waited a little longer than usual for accelerating away for the finish.  Everybody in the team helped.  I was just the lucky one who got to cross the line in first place."

With six stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and another six in the Tour de France, today's win is Columbia-HTC's seventeenth victory in a Grand Tour this season. Greipel's latest triumph brings the squad's 2009 total of wins to 84, just one fewer than their recordbreaking total of 85 in 2008.