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Credit: Graham Watson
RABON TAKES OVERALL VICTORY AT MURCIA
March 07, 2010
Columbia-HTC rider Frantisek Rabon has clinched the overall victory of the Tour of Murcia, Spain, following a trouble-free final stage on Sunday.
Rabon had taken the lead thanks to his spectacular time trial victory on Saturday. HTC-Columbia then kept the race well under control in Sunday's 121.1 kilometre stage from Redyser to Murcia, won by Holland's Theo Bos.
The five-day Tour of Murcia is Rabon's first ever stage race victory as a professional, and the 26-year-old took it with a 38 second advantage over Russia's Denis Menchov, second overall, and a 53 second on third-placed British rider Bradley Wiggins.
"The first 40 kilometres of the final stage, before the one big climb of the day, were a bit crazy with attacks going everywhere. But afterwards we kept it all under control," said HTC-Columbia's sports director for the race, Tristan Hoffman.
"At one point there was a break of nine riders, with one of them a potential threat because he was less than three minutes behind Frankie [Rabon] on the overall. Fortunately, he dropped out of the break and we combined with the sprinters' teams to close things down."
"Frankie's always been a great time triallist, but now he's getting much better on the climbs, too, so we weren't too worried."
The HTC-Columbia director singled out "all the young guys on our team, who were really nervous but also really motivated about keeping the breaks under control. What we had to do we did well."
Rabon had taken the lead thanks to his spectacular time trial victory on Saturday. HTC-Columbia then kept the race well under control in Sunday's 121.1 kilometre stage from Redyser to Murcia, won by Holland's Theo Bos.
The five-day Tour of Murcia is Rabon's first ever stage race victory as a professional, and the 26-year-old took it with a 38 second advantage over Russia's Denis Menchov, second overall, and a 53 second on third-placed British rider Bradley Wiggins.
"The first 40 kilometres of the final stage, before the one big climb of the day, were a bit crazy with attacks going everywhere. But afterwards we kept it all under control," said HTC-Columbia's sports director for the race, Tristan Hoffman.
"At one point there was a break of nine riders, with one of them a potential threat because he was less than three minutes behind Frankie [Rabon] on the overall. Fortunately, he dropped out of the break and we combined with the sprinters' teams to close things down."
"Frankie's always been a great time triallist, but now he's getting much better on the climbs, too, so we weren't too worried."
The HTC-Columbia director singled out "all the young guys on our team, who were really nervous but also really motivated about keeping the breaks under control. What we had to do we did well."
