ROSSELER WINS IN ALGARVE. FIRST TEAM RADIOSHACK VICTORY.
Team RadioShack’s Sébastien Rosseler won the 4th stage in the Tour of Algarve (Portugal) on Saturday. The Belgian was the strongest rider after a solo effort of 28 kilometer in a demanding stage. In Tavira he had 58 seconds advantage to 5 others riders who had been part of his original breakaway.
Rosseler was not present in an early breakaway, but jumped to the front riders after 40 K of racing. With his companions Iljo Keisse, Preben Vanhecke, Egoi Martínez, Mickael Delage and Imanol Irviti he managed to stay in the front the entire day. The six got a maximum advantage of 5-minutes, 10-seconds. Team Astana and HTC-Columbia chased and drew closer but then Rosseler attacked. Nobody could follow the hard rider from Belgium. He took up to 54 seconds. Delage was the fastest rider of the former breakaway group. The peloton finished at 3 minutes.
“What a surprise!” said Sébastien Rosseler after the stage. “Yesterday I felt so tired, but this morning I was motivated again. I intended to work for Tiago Machado and Levi Leipheimer, to keep them out of the wind but then I saw the opportunity to jump to the breakaway. This was maybe a chance to help the Team to a first victory of the season. We all expected a mass sprint but as Gert Steegmans is not here any more, we knew we had to take other initiatives. I dedicate this victory to Gert anyway. I hope he will get ready for the first races in Belgium next weekend. I am so happy. Thanks to my Team Directors.”
“I told Séba to attack as the peloton was coming closer,” said Team Director José Azevedo. “It was better to attack when the gap was still 3 minutes than when it was 1 minute. It was hard for Séba, but he is so strong…”
“Never give Rosseler 100 meter advantage. You will not catch him,” added Team Director Dirk Demol. “We saw that he was the strongest rider uphill. With fast guys like Delage and Keisse, we could not take any risk. What a strong guy Rosseler is! The course was very hard, but he impressed us the whole day. I think we have not yet seen the best of him. Séba is one of our key riders for the classics. I think he will be ready for it.”
For Sébastien Rosseler this is his seventh victory as a professional rider. Last year he was the best in the time trials of the Four-Day-Race of Dunkerque and the Tour of Belgium.
Result Stage 4 Volta ao Algarve: Vila Real de San António (Cacela) – Tavira, 169 K
1 Sébastien Rosseler (Team RadioShack) 04:12:46; 2 Mickael Delage 0:20; 3 Irmanol Erviti; 4 Preben Vanhecke; 5 Egoi Martínez 0:24; 6 Iljo Keisse 2:50; 7 Andre Greipel 03:00; 8 Wouter Weylandt; 9 Samuel Caldeira; 10 Graeme Brown
General Classifciation after Stage 4
1 Alberto Contador; 2 Tiago Machado (Team RadioShack) 0:15; 3 Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) 0:28; 4 Samuel Sánchez 0:35; 5 Tejay Van Garderen; 6 Rui Costa 0:40; 7 Luis-León Sánchez 0:43; 8 Andreas Klöden (Team RadioShack); 9 Matthew Lloyd; 10 Joaquín Rodriguez
