Movistar rocket to TTT victory

The Movistar team claimed a hard-fought victory in the short, fast team time trial from Pradoluendo to Belorado in the Vuelta a Burgos, besting the Katusha team of race leader Joaquim Rodriguez by ten seconds.

The 11.6km race took less than ten minutes, with the Spanish squad pushing the pace to 66.6kph to take the victory, which it dedicated to Andrea Pinarello, the son of the team's bicycle sponsor.

"We are really happy, not only because of the victory but also for the time gap made," said Movistar directeur sportif José Luis Arrieta. "The aim was to be as close to the top as possible ... We knew it was going to be a fast TTT and gaps had to be short, but taking ten seconds on the next ones means that the lads did a magnificent race.

"We want to dedicate this victory to Andrea Pinarello. His family is really close to our team, and we felt really sad about his death."

"The tactics were clear: going on full steam from the start and until the point where we could hang on. We already had seven seconds on the Katusha squad after 3k, so we were the best right from the start."

Following today's stage, Rodriguez remains in the lead, but with less than ten seconds over there Movistar riders: Sergio Pardilla, David Lopez Garcia and Pablo Lastras. Euskaltel-Euskadi's contender Samuel Sanchez lost 24 seconds on the day and now sits in fifth place overall, 21 seconds behind Rodriguez.,

With an uphill finish on Saturday to Clunia and the Lagunas de Neila as the final summit arrival on Sunday, there are still opportunities for the general classification contenders.

"The GC is looking very good for us now, but we have to be conscious about what's left," said Arrieta. "It's true that 'Purito' and Samuel proved to be over the rest, but they did it in explosive finishes. The Lagunas can do well for Pardilla and David, and even Pablo can make it better in such a climb."

Katusha's director Mario Chiesa was satisfied with the performance of the team, which took second ahead of Acqua & Sapone. "I'm quite happy," Chiesa said. "We were able to keep the general classification leadership with our leader Joaquim Rodriguez, gaining some seconds over one of the forerunners, Samuel Sanchez. We could have won today too: for some factors we didn't, but it was a good performance."

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