Cardoso claims sprint victory

Manuel Cardoso (RadioShack) took his first win of the 2011 season as he prevailed in the field sprint deciding the fourth stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. The 27-year-old Portuguese rider topped Giacomo Nizzolo (Leopard Trek) and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) in El Vendrell over a predominantly flat 195km parcours.

"I am so happy," said Cardoso. "The team worked hard for me, even guys like Chris Horner who had his own good GC position to protect. The last 15km they protected me and brought me to the front.

"At 1km from the end HTC-Highroad set up a train, but with 500 metres to go, Movistar with Rojas went to the front and I managed to take the wheel of Rojas. At 300 metres I took the lead, gave everything I had and nobody else was able to pass me, but it was close."

Race leader Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Sungard) remains in the overall lead as the general classification contenders had a quiet day of racing.

"We did what we had to do," said Saxo Bank SunGard sports director Dan Frost. "We controlled the pace with a couple of other teams who wanted to enter the finish line in one group for the bunch sprint.

"We're only interested in the overall classification and for the sake of the race and the thrill of it, I kind of hope that a group of fortune diggers seek an opportunity to make it last to the finish line. However, no one is going to take the jersey away from us."

A day for the sprinters

The stage got underway at noon, with Saxo Bank-SunGard's Alberto Contador in the leader's jersey. Things started quietly enough until a crash at km 29 took down Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) among others. No one was injured and all the affected riders eventually worked their way back to the peloton.

The sprinters' stage, with only one category three ranked climb, needed over 55km before a breakaway group formed. Jose Vicente Toribio (Andalucía-Caja Granada), Mathias Frank (BMC), Rubén Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandr Pliuschin (Katusha) and Mauricio Ardila (Geox-TMC) got away and built up a lead of up to four minutes.

Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) was the favourite to win the expected mass sprint, having won the race's first sprint stage, but it wasn't to be. The Italian had to pay tribute to health problems and abandoned during the early part of the stage.

Pliuschin took the stage's sole KOM, the Alt de Passanant-Belltall at km 126.7 ahead of Ardila and Frank, and then the gap started coming down as the sprinters' teams sought to neutralise their escape.

With 40km remaining in the stage, and the break's advantage reduced to one minute, Pliuschin attacked his breakaway companions and set out alone. The remaining four escapees were soon swept up by the peloton, but Pliuschin managed to extend his lead to two minutes with 30km to go. The Katusha rider's attempt at stage glory would be dashed, however, as the peloton ramped up the pace and caught the Moldovan inside of 15km to the finish.

With Garmin-Cervelo, Lampre-ISD, Movistar, Sky and Cofidis all contributing riders to the pace-making, the peloton remained together through to the finish where Cardoso sprinted to his first victory of the season.