Brutt wins in Limburg

Image 1 of 26

Pavel Brutt (Katusha) won the 196km Volta Limburg Classic on Saturday. The Russian champion was in a breakaway all day, and cross the finish line first, defeating his rivals in a five-man sprint. Simon Geschke (Argos-Oil Shimano) and Daniel Schorn (NetApp) completed the podium.

"I'm very happy with this victory," said Brutt. "I felt in a good shape, I was in a breakaway from the beginning and in the end, I was able to anticipate the sprint and win by eight seconds."

Brutt broke away in the first kilometer with Bert-Jan Lindeman (Vacansoleil-DCM). The duo split after some time, as Lindeman couldn't continue with Brutt in the breakaway. The Katusha rider kept his pace and stayed alone at the head of the race, until he was eventually caught by four counter-attacking riders: Simon Geschke (Argos-Oil Shimano), Daniel Schorn (NetApp), Pieter Serry (Topsport Vlaanderen) and Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthCare).

The five-man group was able to stay off until the end. Then Brutt surprised his rivals by starting the sprint with 600m to go, and the others could not close the gap in time.

"Actually, I thought the bunch would catch us in the final circuit: but when I saw they didn't manage to, I tried to anticipate my sprint and luckily my rivals were surprised and they couldn't catch me. I'm very glad with this victory and my form," said Brutt.

"I had to withdraw from Tirreno-Adriatico because of a flu, so I had to take a break for some days to recover. Thanks to this win, I could prove to myself that it hadn't hindered me from good preparation for this race."

Full Results