Press Release: Cardoso Wins in Catalunya
Team RadioShack took their seventh road victory of the 2011 cycling season with the stage 4 win by Manuel Cardoso in the Volta a Catalunya on Thursday. It was the first win of the season for the 27-year old Portuguese rider who successfully sprinted in a close finish, besting Giacomo Nizzolo and José Joaquín Rojas.
“I am so happy,” said Manuel Cardoso. “The team worked hard for me. Even guys like Chris Horner who had his own good GC position to protect. The last 15k they protected me and brought me to the front. At 1k from the end HTC-Highroad set up a train, but with 500 meters to go, Movistar with Rojas went to the front and I managed to take the wheel of Rojas. At 300 meters I took the lead, gave everything I had and nobody else was able to pass me, but it was close. I am so delighted!”
Team Directors Viatcheslav Ekimov and José Azevedo have plenty to be happy about, too. Beyond Cardoso’s win, teammate Levi Leipheimer is second overall behind race leader Alberto Contador and Team RadioShack lead in the Teams competition with three stages remaining to race. “We were helped a lot during the race by Movistar and Cofidis. They believed in Rojas and Dumoulin and didn’t see Cardoso as a danger. After Manuel’s third-place finish two days ago, we saw he finally had confidence in himself. We told him he didn’t need to be nervous just because he didn’t have a victory yet. We told him it would come. And look, it’s only March and already the win is here!”
A new signee this year to Team RadioShack, Cardoso turned professional in 2005. In 2010 he scored his first ProTour victory over the likes of Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans in an uphill sprint in the Santos Tour Down Under. His early success quickly turned south, however, with a crash the following month that broke his collarbone. Later in the season at the Tour de France he fractured his jawbone and his right shoulderblade, keeping him out of competition for much of the season. But Cardoso is no stranger to the winner’s circle, taking 33 races as a professional rider including the 2009 national road championship.
“This is my 34th professional victory,” said Cardoso. “It is true I was too nervous the first weeks of the season but isn’t that normal? When the team of Lance Armstrong signs you, that gives some pressure. But now I’ve proved their faith in me was right. I promise some other victories will follow.”
Result Stage 4: La Seu D’Urgell to El Vendrell, 195km/121mi
1 Manuel Cardoso (Team RadioShack) 4:33:02; 2 Giacomo Nizzolo; 3 José Joaquín Rojas; 4 Aitor Galdos; 5 Frantisek Rabon; 6 Samuel Dumoulin; 7 William Clarke; 8 Michel Kreder; 9 Michal Golas; 10 Daniel Martin
General Classification after Stage 4
1 Alberto Contador 17:38:57; 2 Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) 0:23; 3 Michele Scarponi; 4 Daniel Martin 0:35; 5 Chris Horner; 6 Rigorberto Urán 0:38; 7 Ivan Basso; 8 Xavier Tondo; 9 Cadel Evans 0:50; 10 Bauke Mollema 01:12
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