Ventoso victorious in Ruta del Sol finale

Francisco Ventoso (Carmiooro NGC) achieved his goal of a stage win at the Ruta del Sol with a sprint victory in Thursday's final stage. Ventoso used his finishing speed to dispatch a pair of Australians, Simon Gerrans (Sky Professional Cycling Team) and race leader Michael Rogers (Team HTC - Columbia), at the finish in Antequera.

The 27-year-old Spaniard targeted the Ruta's challenging 161.4km finale, with a category one climb 46km from the finish, as his best option to deliver a win and his prediction came to fruition that he'd be the only sprinter to make the selection on the decisive Puerto de El Torcal ascent. Ventoso handily out-kicked the rest of an elite 30-man peloton comprised primarily of climbers and GC contenders to claim his first victory of the season.

Race leader Michael Rogers faced a strong challenge from the Andalucia - Cajasur squad and defended his red jersey earned in the previous stage's time trial to win overall. The three-time time trial world champion bested Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) by 19 seconds and previous race leader Sergio Pardilla Bellón (Carmiooro NGC) by 30 seconds on general classification. The overall victory was the 30-year-old Australian's first stage race win since 2003.

"It was a pretty tough day but the team were super and we never panicked," said Rogers.

Break goes for broke

The stage was marked by a four-rider escape group which formed after 11km of racing. Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil), Angel Vicioso (Andalucia - Cajasur) and Marco Marzano (Lampre-Farnese Vini) successfully attacked the peloton and were joined seven kilometres later by Bradley Wiggins (Sky).

Vicioso had nearly erased his GC deficit to Rogers on the road when HTC-Columbia's chase effort was made more difficult due to three team members crashing mid-stage: Konstantsin Sivtsov, Michael Albasini and Hayden Roulston.

"The break was very dangerous with some strong riders out there, and we tried to keep them at two minutes but when that crash happened we had to let them have a bit more," said HTC-Columbia sport director Brian Holm.

The quartet's lead grew to nearly five minutes on the hilly terrain and put pressure on race leader Michael Rogers's HTC-Columbia team. Vicioso started the day 1:57 down on general classification to Rogers and assumed the Australian's race leadership on the road.

Andalucia-Cajasur pulled out all the stops to crack Rogers, as Vicioso's teammates Antonio Piedra and Jose Gomez Marchante successfully bridged to the break with 55 kilometres remaining to form a leading sextet.

The breakaway splintered, however, on the first category Puerto de El Torcal ascent with Feillu, Wiggins and Vicioso cresting the summit together in that order. Marchante and Marzano followed 37 seconds later and Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) led the Rogers group of approximately 25 riders across the KOM one minute down on the leading trio. Feillu, Vicioso and Wiggins continued with their escape attempt, but the Rogers group steadily ate into their advantage, ultimately absorbing them with 20 kilometres remaining.

Despite several attacks in the closing kilometres, the lead 30-rider peloton remained together into Antequera where Ventoso sprinted to victory in the bunch gallop.

"It was very tense in the last part, although Mick got to the finish with enough teammates to protect him and he showed his strength by getting third, too," said Holm. "He did well on the first uphill finish and then again in the time trial that decided the race. It's really nice to see him back on the podium of a stage race."