Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) (Image credit: Sirotti)
The winner of this year's Tour de France, Alberto Contador, has capped his great season with another win, the ACP championships. ACP is the professional riders association in Spain (Asociación de Ciclistas Profesionales). For the second time in a row the race was held in Boadilla del Monte, as reported by Spanish web site todociclismo. Contador won a tight affair, which is based on points rather than time, ahead of Carlos Sastre (CSC) and Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel), who won the event last year.
The race is held in two heats where 15 riders qualify for the final. Contador had no problems in the first heat and also received three points in the intermediate sprints. Sánchez received five points and also had no trouble qualifying. In the final race, which consisted of 16 laps around the avenida Infant Don Luis, it was Iñigo Cuesta (CSC) who took the initiative, and drew Luis Pérez with him. Pérez was on Cuesta's wheel, then attacked him to win the first intermediate sprint. Contador countered, thinking of the second sprint, and a front group of six established, with Oscar Pereiro, Sastre, Sánchez, Contador, Cuesta and Pérez. Sastre took the second intermediate sprint.
The final sprint was crucial, with double points on the line. Contador won the tight affair and ended up with ten points total, three more than runner up Sastre and five more than Sánchez.
Earlier in the day, Relax Fuenlabrada won the team time trial with Santi Pérez, Daniel Moreno and Raúl García. They beat Saunier Duval-Prodir (José Angel Gómez Marchante, Juan José Cobo y Rubén Lobato) by nine hundredths of a second, thanks to a strong acceleration in the last lap.
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