Gerrans claims opening stage of Pais Vasco

Simon Gerrans sprinted to victory in stage 1 of the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco ahead of Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Angel Vicioso (Katusha). Gerrans also became the first overall leader of the race.

A crash split the field over the day's final summit, and thanks to his teammates' work, Gerrans was well-positioned when the front group took shape. Pieter Weening led out the sprint and delivered Gerrans to the line.

"The plan of attack was formed around me today," said Gerrans. "The whole team committed to the stage win. It's nice to repay the team's work at the end of the day. Christian [Meier] did a great job looking after me early on in the stage. The rest of the guys rode fantastic in the hills. They set me up for the stage win and Pieter up for GC [the general classification]."

Gerrans had a heads-up from Orica-GreenEdge director sportif Neil Stephens, who lives less than an hour away from today's course. When he saw the race route, Stephens suspected the stage was one on which Gerrans could win. His suspicions were confirmed after he recon'ed the stage two weeks ago.

"I know these roads, and when I heard about this stage a month ago, I knew it was a day for Simon," said Stephens. "Ten days ago, I came out and previewed the stage. This morning, Pieter, Simon and I left the hotel a little early and we had a look at the last 30 kilometres. We obviously couldn't have predicted the crash at the end, but the rest of the race unfolded exactly as we would have expected. If we were going to win today, it was going to be with Simon. We put all our energy into him."

Five riders went up the road early in the action, and the break was eventually whittled down to two riders: Laurent Didier (RadioShack Leopard Trek) and Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural).

Teams with GC ambitions controlled the chase. Didier and Txurruka got a maximum advantage of 5:15 during the second hour of racing. The gap began to come down starting at the midpoint of the race.

Eighteen kilometres from the finish in Elgoibar, on the lower slopes of the Alto de San Miguel, it was gruppo compatto.

A crash at the summit, with 7.5 kilometres to go, allowed an elite group of 17 riders to form. On the ground were Dries Devenyns and Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) and Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol). The latter two continued, with Van Den Broeck sporting a trail of blood down his arm and leg. Devenyns abandoned with a broken arm.

"We were lucky not to have any of our riders go down in the crash," said Stephens. "Simon Clarke had to put a foot out and Wes [Wesley Sulzberger] was pushed into a wall, but no one hit the floor."

"After the crash at the summit, Pieter saw that I had made the split and was in good position," said Gerrans. "He did a fantastic job on the descent and in the final. It was basically thanks to him that I won. He set me up perfectly."

A second group gave chase down the mountain. Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) heralded the 20 riders in hot pursuit of the group ahead in the hopes to limit the damage to his general classification ambitions. The first group of chasers had closed the gap to five seconds by the time Gerrans outkicked Velits for the win.

While Gerrans was the first to admit that his preparation for Milan-San Remo was less than ideal, he's now finding great confidence in his build-up to the Ardennes Classics.

"This is perfect," said Gerrans. "I focused on winning one specific stage at Catalunya and another stage here. I've accomplished both goals, and it shows that my form is coming up nicely. My preparation for Milan-Sanremo wasn't what I had hoped, but it's turning around to work out really well leading to the Ardennes. We're still a couple weeks out, and I just need to keep building on the form that I have now."

Having won the first stage, Gerrans leads the Pais Vasco general classification. He'll start stage 2 in the yellow jersey.

"We'll have to take a bit more responsibility in the race tomorrow now that I'm in yellow," he said with a smile. "I'm sure the team is up for it."

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