Valverde wins opening stage after Freire is relegated

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Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) claimed the opening stage of the Tour of the Basque country on Monday afternoon, after the race jury upheld a protest against Oscar Freire (Rabobank) for an irregular sprint.

Freire pulled across the road in the final 200 metres of the stage, forcing Valverde towards the barriers that lined the left-hand side of the home straight. Commissares agreed that Freire had deviated from his line and awarded the stage to Valverde. The decision meant Christophe Le Mevel (Francaise de Jeux) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) were awarded second and third place, respectively.

It was the sixth career stage victory at the Basque Tour for Valverde. He leads the race overall, ahead of Le Mevel and Hesjedal.

Pre-race favourite Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) missed a decisive split in the peloton on the final climb of the day and finished 1:38 behind the stage winner. His hopes of overall victory seemingly over for another year.

Earlier, a five rider breakaway had moved away from the peloton in the first hour of the race and worked to quickly establish what would be a maximum advantage of 5:40. The quintet consisted of Serguei Klimov (Katusha), Christian Meier (Garmin-Transitions), Martin Pedersen (Footon-Servetto), Gonzalo Rabuñal (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Sergio Carrasco (Andalucía CajaSur).

Smooth Spanish roads kept the pace high, but the introduction of the first of the Tour's many hills created a gradual erosion of the gap to the leaders. Although lower category, the climbs of the Cobaron, Avellaneda, Humaran, Puxtet and Pippin shaved time off the difference between the two groups of riders.

On truly home soil, the Basque Euskaltel-Euskadi squad were prominent at the lead of the chase, though Lampre-Farnese Vini, RadioShack, and later Sky, Rabobank and Saxo Bank were also involved in the pace-making.

Ahead, the climbs were taking their told as Pedersen fell away from the front group. The remaining leaders stayed out in front, clinging onto an advantage that began to drop away sharply as it returned to the two minute mark.

On the Putxet, the early breakaway was neutralized, but was immediately replaced with a catalogue of the event's 'big names'. Robert Gesink (Rabobank), Chris Horner (RadioShack) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) launched their own attack and were joined by shortly afterwards by Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank), Beñat Intxausti (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Christophe Le Mevel (Francaise de Jeux) and Jurgen van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

Having missed the powerhouse break, Damiano Cunego (Lampre) was one of the riders taking responsibility for the chase. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), content in the knowledge his brother had made the split, monitored events from third wheel.

As the race flew downhill towards the finish line, the leaders' advantage hovered around the 20 second mark, favourable conditions making the chase behind difficult for those in the peloton.

But with five kilometres to race the front group began to play cat-and-mouse, breaking their momentum. A re-organisation ensued, but at three-to-go, they chase had made contact, forming a lead peloton of some 30 riders. Oscar Freire (Rabobank) had survived the selection of the stage's final climbs and sat ominously at the front of the group.

Katusha led the sprint out, but Freire leapt quickly from third wheel, with Valverde on his tail. Freire gradually edged his way left across the road, boxing Valverde in and raising the ire of his Caisse d'Epargne rival as the finish line passed. The race jury subsequently relegated Freire and awarded the stage victory to Valverde.