JJ Haedo on the podium in Murcia (Image credit: Susanne Goetze)
The sprinters battled it out again Thursday in the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia, with CSC's Juan Jose Haedo taking his fifth victory of the season. The fast man from Argentina finished clearly ahead of Euskaltel's Koldo Fernandez and Graeme Brown of Rabobank in stage three.
"He was tremendous in that finish. He knew exactly where to position himself in relation to Graeme Brown and I actually think he's the strongest out of all the sprinters down here with both this victory today and the one on Sunday," said sports director Dan Frost on the team's website. "We'd actually hoped to be part of a break today, but six guys escaped early on and we had to do some hard work in the peloton instead. Things were pretty much under control though and when it came to the sprint the whole team did a great job of lining JJ up."
Brown, who won the race's first stage, won the third stage last year over a course that had the same final 50 km. "Of course afterwards, you can say that you probably started too early," Rabobank team director Frans Maassen said. "We have been beaten, something that can happen."
