Rogers hangs on to win Ruta

Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) survived an action-packed final stage Thursday to win the overall at the Ruta del Sol in Spain, his first European stage-race victory since 2003.

Francisco Ventoso (Carmiooro-NGC) edged Simon Gerrans (Team Sky) out of a greatly reduced front group in a grueling, four-climb stage across the mountains of southern Spain.

Rogers led the front group across the line at two seconds back to secure the overall crown. Finishing second overall was Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) at 19 seconds back and Sergio Pardilla (Camiooro-NGC) in third at 30 seconds back.

“It was a pretty tough day but the team were super and we never panicked,” Rogers said.

Rogers took the overall leader’s jersey in Wednesday’s time trial and counted on his HTC-Columbia teammates to control an attack-laden stage that saw Andalucia-CajaSur try to blow open the race.

The final 161.4km stage from Torrox Costa to Antequera featured four rated climbs, including the potentially explosive Cat. 1 Puerto de El Torcal at 46km to the line.

There was a flurry of attacks in the opening kilometers when Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil), Angel Vicioso (Andalucia-CajaSur) and Marco Manzano (Lampre) pulled clear. Soon enough, Bradley Wiggins (Sky), perhaps peeved that he lost Wednesday’s time trial, chugged out to join the breakaway.

The gap grew to more than two minutes and Vicioso, who started 17th at 1:57 back, slipped into the “virtual” race lead. Vicioso crashed on a tricky descent, but quickly remounted and the quartet continued to open up time on the pack, topping at 4:45 at 55km into the stage.

With the gap widening, HTC-Columbia put legs on the front to get serious about the chase and trimmed the gap to 3:15 within 25km. The gap continued to fall to under two minutes, which prompted two more Andalucia-CajaSur riders — Piedra and José Angel Gómez Marchante — to bridge out to join the leaders.

Andalucia-CajaSur was playing all its cards for a win on home roads, but HTC-Columbia stepped up. Things were dicey on the final Torcal climb, when it came down to a mano-a-mano fight, with the breakaway and the chasing pack breaking up under the stress.

The lead group was reduced to about 30 riders, but the top-3 on GC were represented along with five HTC-Columbia riders, and the potentially dangerous move was reeled in for good with 20km to go.

From there, it was a drag race to the line, with Gerrans and Ventoso the fastest “on paper” in the lead pack.

It was all a relief for HTC-Columbia director Brian Holm. “The break was very dangerous with some strong riders out there, and we tried to keep them at two minutes but when that crash happened we had to let them have a bit more,” Holm said.  “It was very tense in the last part, although Mick got to the finish with enough teammates to protect him and he showed his strength by getting third, too.  He did well on the first uphill finish and then again in the time trial that decided the race. It’s really nice to see him back on the podium of a stage race.”

FILED UNDER: News / Race Report TAGS: HTC-Columbia / Michael Rogers / Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol