Galimzyanov strikes in Sarthe sprint

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Katusha's Denis Galimzyanov has put an end to the dark part of his 2012 season as he scored his first win in Riaillé at the end of stage 1 of the Circuit de la Sarthe-Pays de la Loire. It was a bunch gallop in which runner up Sacha Modolo of Colnago-CSF and Juan José Haedo could only admire the back wheel of the Russian.

It was the first win of the season for the 25-year-old who turned heads last year with sprint victories in the Three Days of De Panne, Tour of Luxembourg, Paris - Bruxelles and the Tour of Beijing.

"We've had one of our riders in the front all day," described Galimzyanov in reference to Mikhail Ignatiev who got a maximum lead of ten minutes with eventual king of the mountain Arnaud Courteille (FDJ-BiigMat) and best young rider Benoît Jarrier (Vérandas Rideau). Jarrier hails from the Sarthe province and his father is a member of the organizing committee of the race.

Ignatiev persisted solo on the final circuit in Riaillé. He had an advantage of 1:40 at bell lap with 12.5km to go, but got caught just before the red kite.

"We took the command of the race straight away," Galimzyanov continued. "From 1km to go to the 500 metres mark, Pavel Brutt put the peloton in one line on the left side of the road because the wind was blowing from the right, then Maxim Belkov took over until Haedo started sprinting. When I saw that, I jumped. I won with an advantage of one length of a bike, it's a good one!"

Galimzyanov seemed relieved and explained why. "I started the season pretty well with second places at the Tour of Qatar and the Tour of Oman," he recalled. "But when I returned from Oman to Europe, I got sick. I had fever for three days. I had to take antibiotics for ten days. It put me down physically.

"Initially, my goal was to perform at Ghent-Wevelgem and the Three Days of De Panne but I didn't make it to Belgium with the appropriate condition, so I rode De Panne as a helper for our Norwegian rider Alexander Kristoff who had the leader's jersey and won a stage, but I wasn't able to win myself. I'm hungry to win! Today is the victory that I have been waiting for."

 "This is an important year for me because it's an Olympic year. When I turned pro with Katusha three years ago, I was told that I was on a program for London 2012 because the road race at the Olympics is for sprinters this year."

At the age of 25, he seems to know exactly the environment in which he has to perform. "This is my first time at the Circuit de la Sarthe," he said. "I didn't know the race but it's a nice one. We started from the sea and it was beautiful. The roads are good and we race with no stress. It's perfect to prepare for further goals.

"I'm well aware that a sprinter won the overall classification here last year but Daniele Bennati is more than a sprinter. He can time trial and he climb as well. I'm a 100% sprinter! However, I've noticed that the time trial tomorrow is short, only 6.8km. This year we have great time trial bikes with fantastic wheels, so I'll give it a go like Bennati did last year."

The second day of the race features two stages with a short time trial in Angers for which specialists Luke Durbridge of GreenEdge and Garmin-Barracuda's David Zabriskie will face the competition of some sprinters against the clock.

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