Brutt claims solo Vendée victory

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Russia's Pavel Brutt soloed the final ten kilometres of the Tour de Vendée to earn his first victory of the 2009 season. "I won't slow down until the end of the Tour of Lombardy", Brutt said, still eager to race at the end of a lengthy road season.

Brutt, along with teammates Alexandre Botcharov and Sergeï Ivanov, was part of a 16-man breakaway that decided the 38th Tour de Vendée. Katusha and Agritubel had strength in numbers with three riders each in the decisive move, but Agritubel's Brice Feillu, Nicolas Jalabert and Nicolas Vogondy proved to be no match for the Russian ProTour team. Local hero Thomas Voeckler (BBox Bouygues Telecom) was also unable to counter Katusha's tactics with only the lone trainee Jérôme Cousin at his side.

"We decided we should make the front group explode in the last ten kilometres", said Brutt who attacked first and was fantastically protected by Ivanov. The teamwork by Ivanov was payback for all the work done by the rider from St. Petersburg for the Russian champion when Ivanov won the Amstel Gold Race earlier this year.

At Katusha, Brutt is highly regarded as a team player and has grown as a rider with the Russian ProTour squad. Brutt was a member of the Continental team Tinkoff when he placed third at the 2006 Tour de Bretagne. Once Tinkoff became a Pro Continental team, he delivered the first win for the team as he claimed stage nine of the 2007 Le Tour de Langkawi in Seremban. In 2008 Brutt earned the most prestigious victory of his career thus far, stage five of the Giro d'Italia in Contursi Terme.

"I'm still in a learning process of my career", said the 27-year-old. "I learn a lot from Ivanov and I must say that cycling is much easier with him." The Russian champion is still frustrated from the world championship where he sought the rainbow jersey. The masterpiece of the Katusha team in Vendée indicates that Andreï Tchmil's squad remains focused and competitive for the final two weeks of the 2009 season.

The Tour de Vendée was the last leg of the French Cup but series leader Jimmy Casper (Besson Chaussures - Sojasun) had an insurmountable lead and didn't take part. Casper instead chose to ride the Circuit Franco-Belge in preparation for Sunday's Paris-Tours. With Mathieu Ladagnous finishing second behind Brutt in the group that also included Finnish teammate Jussi Veikkanen, Française des Jeux secured the French Cup team title over outgoing Agritubel.