Volta Ciclista a Cataluña

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 7: Parets del Valles to Barcelona, 124.5km/77m
By Cathy Mehl

A recurring illness took Team rider Levi Leipheimer to the hospital for an overnight stay and observation, removing him from the final stage of the Volta a Catalunya and his strong second-place showing.  Although able to leave the hospital Sunday morning, there would be no racing for Leipheimer.  The Shack riders stepped up to fill the void and continued to race hard in the final day of the 100th edition of the race, earning the Teams overall classification as well as Chris Horner just missing the podium in fourth place.  Race winner Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Sungard) maintained his overall lead with Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) moving into Levi’s second place and Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervelo) on the third step.

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 6:  Tarragona to Mollet-del-Valles, 195km/121mi
By Cathy Mehl

Aiming for his second stage win, Team RadioShack rider Manuel Cardoso was denied victory in a questionable sprint by stage winner Jose Joaquin Rojas of Movistar.  Although Cardoso raised his hand in protest at the finish line, no live coverage was available to validate the complaint from the Portuguese rider and the results stood.  Third place went to yesterday’s winner Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis). 

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 5: El Vendrell to Tarragona, 205.8 km/128mi
By Cathy Mehl

After several stages of working and just missing the win, Cofidis rider Samuel Dumoulin got it right to score the victory in stage 5 of the Volta a Catalunya on Friday in Tarragona.  Just behind him in the group sprint were Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi).  Team RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer held fast to his second place on the classification at 23-seconds behind race leader Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank-Sungard.    Michele Scarponi of Lampre-ISD) rounds out the podium for GC with two stages remaining to race.

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.

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 3:  La Vall d'En Bas to Andorra-Vallnord, 183.9km/114mi
By Cathy Mehl

When the roads go up the action always gets exciting in professional cycling and today’s stage 3 in the Volta a Catalunya was certainly no exception.  Team riders Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner both had good legs and followed the winning attack launched by Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) with Levi holding on for third place behind Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD).  Horner arrived a few second later for 5th place, bolstering the team’s first place position in the Teams classification.

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 2:  Santa Coloma de Farners to Banyoles, 169.3km/105mi
By Cathy Mehl

Team RadioShack’s 27-year old Portuguese rider Manuel Cardoso found his sprinting legs to take third place on the 2nd stage of the Volta a Catalunya on Tuesday.  Sprinting from a large group, Cardoso just missed the win behind Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) and Joaquín Rojas of Movistar.  Latvian Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad) held his race lead for a second day after a successful breakaway in the race opener on Monday.

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 1:  Lloret de Mar to Lloret de Mar,   166.9km/104mi
By Cathy Mehl

A winner came again from a successful breakaway when HTC-Highroad’s 23-year old former U23 Latvian champion Gatis  Smukulis scored a big win in the opening stage at the seven-stage Volta a Catalunya.  Coming in a full 28-seconds later were Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) and Jose Rojas of Movistar Team.  Team RadioShack had six riders arrive safely in this group, including Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, Jani Brajkovic, Haimar Zubeldia, Philip Deignan and Ivan Rovny.  With no crashes and no punctures, The Shack are off to a good start in the tour of the Catalan region of northeastern Spain.

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 7:  Circuit de Catalunya, 117.8km
By Cathy Mehl
After leading the race since last Wednesday, Spaniard Joaquin Rodriquez kept his leader’s jersey all the way to the end and won the general classification on Sunday.  A sprint finish on the last stage put Argentina’s JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank) on the top step of the podium after a stellar lead out from his trusted brother Lucas.  Rounding out the stage winners were Robert Forster (Milram) and Nicolas Roche (AG2R). 


Second place overall went to Xavier Tondo (Cervelo) and third to Rein Taaramae of Cofidis after a solid week of racing. 

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 6:  El Vendrell to  Barcelona (Avinguda de l'Stadium), 161.9 km/101mi
By Cathy Mehl
Still firing on all cylinders, Team RadioShack’s Andreas Klöden continued to show good form on stage 6 of the Volta a Catalunya.  After yesterday’s second place finish, our German rider fought once again to land in sixth place behind leader Samuel Dumoulin of Cofidis.   The second slot was taken by his teammate Rein Taaramae with the podium rounded out by race leader Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha).


Five category 3 climbs were on today’s stage with three closing laps that included a climb to Montjuic before crossing the finish line for the last time.  One-hundred sixty riders took part in the stage under warm temperatures and clear skies with some wind on the course. After a quick first hour and several tries to get away, a break finally stayed clear and included Dario Cataldo(Quick Step) and Jan Bakelandts ( Omega Pharma-Lotto)  who built a gap of almost four minutes.  But Katusha controlled the speed of the main field and by 15km to go the gap had fallen to 2-minutes and continued to drop from there.

Volta a Catalunya
Stage 5:  Ascó to Cabacés, 181.2km/113mi
By Cathy Mehl

The Queen stage at the Volta a Catalunya took place on Friday with team rider Andreas Klöden attacking from the pack in an attempt to chase down David Malacarne of Quick Step.  Not able to reach Italian rider,  Klodi took second place on the stage at 36-seconds behind the Italian winner.  Just behind Klöden was Luis Leon Sanchez of Caisse d’Epargne.  Teammate Jani Brajkovic held on for the 11-th spot.  Joaquim Rodriquez (Katusha) held on to his race lead for another stage.  With only two sprint stages remaining to ride and ten-seconds in hand, the Spanish rider looks good to secure the final victory barring an unforeseen circumstance on the road.   Andreas’ and Jani’s good rides gave Team RadioShack the Teams win for the day and moved Brajkovic into 9-th overall.
After the race Andreas said, "It was a tough day but I still felt good at the end and wanted to try something. After a hard week of racing and some bad luck,  second is not so bad. I can feel my form coming along now,"  which of course bodes well for The Shack.