Volta ao Algarve

Stage 5: Laguna to Portimão 17.2km/11mi

By Cathy Mehl

Rain fell again in southern Portugal on Sunday as the 36th Volta ao Algarve came to a conclusion with a 17.2km time trial for the final stage in the five-day stage race.  After yesterday’s first-ever win for Team RadioShack, SébastienRosseler quickly bounced back for today’s race and posted an early best time of 21:48.  The Belgian’s time held for well over an hour as rider after rider fell short of meeting his time.  Starting 7th from last, Caisse d’Epargne’s Luis Leon Sanchez (sporting a yellow LiveStrong band)  blazed the course and established a new best time of 21:32, a time that held up to give the Spanish rider the stage win.   Alberto Contador (Astana) rode to a second-place finish on the stage and captured the general classification for successful defense of his title.  Team RadioShack earned the third spot on the final podium with rider Tiago Machado, as well as the Teams classification by placing three riders in the top ten for the overall.   Machado also earned the title of best Portugese rider.  Second place on GC went to Sanchez by two seconds over Machado.

Starting just before Sanchez was Team RadioShack’s Andreas Klöden who rode well for a 13th place on the stage and 8th overall.  Levi Leipheimer and Machado, as well as Contador were all on course after Sanchez but none could touch the former Spanish time trial champion’s winning time. Levi started 4th from last and posted a respectable time of 21:54, good enough for 4th on the day and fourth overall. Starting next to last, Portgugese TT champion Machado went on course and stopped the clock at 22:02, fast enough to keep him in 3rd place on the final podium in Algarve.  Last to start was Contador, riding a re-vamped time trial bike as the result of a UCI decision forbidding his regular machine.  Contador had no trouble making it work however and clocked in the second-best time of 21:45, securing the overall win and successfully defending his title.

“We can only be happy with what we did here,” said team Director Dirk Demol at the end of the race.  “We won a stage and the Team GC and have three riders in the top ten of the overall GC. Of course you always hope for a miracle in the TT, but Alberto Contador is Alberto Contador. We know his qualities. LL Sanchez was strong as well, but you have to take into account that he has already done more races this year.”  Demol continued with his closing comment of “I was surprised by the performance of Séba today.  Third in the TT after the hard efforts of yesterday. He’s a strong guy… To summarize, we are happy.”

Next up on the race calendar for Team RadioShack are the Giro di Sardegna, February 23-28 and La Classica/Sassari-Olbia on February 28. Riding in the red, white and grey will be:  Jani Brajkovic, Matthew Busche, Ben Hermans, Chris Horner, Geoffroy Lequatre, Dmitriy Muravyev, Ivan Rovny and Markel Irizar (who replaces Bjorn Selander).  Race director will be Alain Gallopin.

Beyond the Finish Line:  Ria de Alvor is a beautiful setting chosen as the nesting place of dozens of species of migratory bird. The salt marshes also support an interesting variety of animal life, while the local fishermen still use traditional techniques to catch fish and gather shellfish. Get up early to explore this region and discover a world of total calm and beauty.

Top Ten Results

1 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:21:32  

2 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana 0:00:13  

3 Sebastien Rosseler (Bel) Team RadioShack 0:00:16  

4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack 0:00:22  

5 Frantisek Rabon (Cze) Team HTC - Columbia 0:00:23  

6 Tiago Machado (Por) Team RadioShack 0:00:30  

7 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:35  

8 Rui Costa (Por) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:44  

9 Imanol Erviti (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:46  

10 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Rabobank 0:00:48

Team RadioShack on Stage 5

13 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 0:00:55  

39 Sergio Paulinho (Por) Team RadioShack 0:01:32  

116 Grégory Rast (Swi) 0:03:09

Final General Classification 

1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana 19:57:48  

2 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:30  

3 Tiago Machado (Por) Team RadioShack 0:00:32  

4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack 0:00:37  

5 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:57

6 Rui Costa (Por) Caisse d'Epargne 0:01:11  

7 Frantisek Rabon (Cze) Team HTC - Columbia 0:01:16  

8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 0:01:25    

9 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) Team HTC - Columbia 0:01:33  

10 Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC - Columbia 0:01:45

Team RadioShack on Final General Classification

27 Sergio Paulinho (Por) 0:02:45  

53 Grégory Rast (Swi) 0:07:11  

70 Sebastien Rosseler (Bel) 0:12:24

Photo Courtesy of Graham Watson