Basque Country 1: Contador shines in the rain
Contador overcame wintry conditions to take the stage victory (Getty Images)
Contador finished the stage in 3hr 39min 22sec, three seconds up on compatriot Ezequiel Mosquera of the Karpin-Galicia team, with Mosquera's team-mate David Herrero heading the main chasing group a further five seconds adrift. The opening stage of the six-day long Vuelta a Pais Vasco, with start and finish in Legazpia, featured seven climbs and was marked by pouring rain. It was the reigning Tour de France champion and Astana team leader Contador who took maximum advantage of the adverse weather conditions.
Mosquera broke away to attack the final hill, forcing Contador - whose team have been barred from this year's Tour de France as a result of doping scandals over the past two years - to set off after him with 8km to go. The two rode together until the 2km marker when Contador attacked again and was able to get away from Mosquera and negotiate the dangerous descent into Legazpia.
"My team again worked so hard," said Contador. "My overall victory in the Tour of Castilla y Leon gave the team extra motivation and confidence. We really rode an intelligent race. Rain or sunshine, it doesn't matter for me. When you have the right conditions, you can put up with every type of weather.
"Over the next few days, all the other teams will be looking at us, but we are used to it. I did not gain so many seconds on the other riders, but we showed again that our team is one of the strongest teams in the world."
Mosquera did well to stay ahead of the following peloton that included pre-race favourites Damiano Cunego of the Lampre team and Gerolsteiner rider David Rebellin to finish in second spot. The second stage of the Vuelta is a 153km run from Legazpia to Erandio.
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cinemator
Posted Tue 8 Apr, 9:51 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Revenge Tour 2008 is a beautiful thing, so far. Alberto Contador is madder than Hell and he's out to show the world that the field for the 2008 TdF will be a farce without the Astana Team and it's defending champion. What's especially great about the Pais Vasco race, is the showdown between Alberto and Cadel Evans. Since Alberto will not be allowed to defend in France, this is the time for him to prove his point, and throw the credibility of the ASO and RCS in their faces.
It's very obvious that the motivation behind Christian Prudhomme and his ASO, and Zomegnan and his RCS, is to punish Johan Bruyneel for his defiant stance in signing Ivan Basso, in late 2006. It seems that it was not enough, that after Basso admitted to deceiving EVERYBODY, Bruyneel and his team lost their Title sponsor, and it effectively broke the team up.
Now the officials want to continue exacting a price out of him, and the riders that have stayed loyal to him. Never mind that the most important core of the Astana team is almost totally different from the band of pirates that made up the 2007 team. I, myself,
would never have stood up for Astana if I thought it was a cheating team. But I do believe in Bruyneel and the riders that have gone over to Astana, and I feel for them now that a year of their professional lives has been very coldly suspended. Prudhomme and Zomegnan know that they are hurting men who do not deserve that kind of treatment, they simply don't care, they are flexing their power, just to make their own point. Otherwise, if all else were fair, Rabobank , Cofidis and High Road should not be allowed to race either, based on their 2007 offences.
I'd like to finish with the thought that this type of arbitrary, unyielding, and very discriminating exclusion of teams from competition should be absolutely unacceptable
to the riders and the teams. The riders are not helpless victims in this very poor melodrama, they empower the ASO and the RCS by not standing down from the offending races, and showing the organizers that "The Show" is really about them, the riders, and that they won't race in an overtly contrived and manipulated environment.
Unfortunately, the riders want to act like victims, who just want to ride their bikes..... poor little puppies!
When, I really love them, but in fact,They are really only looking out for themselves, and very obviously overlooking that the next banned team could be their own. It's a true shame, and has absolutely dampened my entusiasm for the sport.
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