Final hilly stage is good terrain for Spaniard
Sergio Pardilla won the Vuelta Ciclista Madrid, a two-day, three-stage race in and around the Spanish capital. Pardilla used the final, hilly, 132km stage to dislodge prologue winner Gustav Erik Larsson from the lead. The finish today was at 1800 meters of altitude.
Pardilla was 27 seconds ahead of Fortunato Baliani at the end of the final stage and 32 seconds clear from Ivan Melero. Larsson dropped back to 14th place, 1’58 behind the winner.
Gustav Erik Larsson won the 8.1km prologue on Saturday. The Swedish rider came home after nine minutes and 41 seconds, 11 seconds faster than Oleg Chuzhda and 12 seconds ahead of Jesus Del Nero. Ezequiel Mosquera was also 12 seconds back but had to settle for fourth.
Larsson was a bit surprised at himself at the prologue. “I actually haven’t been training that hard the last couple of weeks, but the shape was good enough to take the stage win, which of course is very encouraging. But I have to be really strong tomorrow in order to take the overall win as the stage has a steep uphill finish but I will sure do what I can,” said Larsson. The answer was that the final stage proved too hilly for him indeed.
Larsson was able to keep the jersey after stage two, won by Francisco Ventoso. Ventoso was faster than Koldo Fernandez and Enrique Mata in the bunch sprint.
It was a hard fought dash to the line. “The sprint was very nervous,” Ventoso said after his win. “You had to pay attention, as virtually all the riders came to the line together. The stage was calm, with the teams of the sprinters controlling it. I stayed in the bunch, helped by my teammates and then I gave it my best to achieve the maximum.”
Final general classification
1 PARDILLA, Sergio (CARM IOORO-NGC) 05’18’21
2 BALIANI, Fortunato (MICHE) 0’38
3 MELERO, Ivan (BURGOS Monumental-CY) 0’39
4 MANCEBO, Francisco (HERAKLION Kastro-Mur) 0’46
5 MOSQUERA, Ezequiel (XACOBEO GALICIA) 0’57
6 ANTON H., Igor (EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI) 01’02
7 HERRADA, Jose (CAJA RURAL) 01’05
8 CHEULA, Gianpaolo (FOOTON-SERVETTO) 01’07
9 DIDIER, Laurent (TEAM SAXO BANK) 01’09
10 PASAMONTES, Luis (CAISSE D`EPARGNE) 01’10