Alberto Contador has won the Vuelta de Murcia (Tour of Murcia) in only his second event since being cleared of doping allegations by the Spanish Cycling Federation. The Tour de France champion, riding for Saxo Bank-SunGard, looked strong from the start of the three-day event in Spain, ultimately setting a best overall time of 9hours, 27minutes and 18seconds win wins on both day/stage two and three.
By the end of the mountainous day two Contador already looked close to unstoppable combining a powerful attack on the final climb of the day – the Collado Bermejo – with a heart-stopping descent to the finish line with no holding back when it came to risk taking. Whilst day three’s 12.5km time trial stage gave Contador his second win of three days when he posted a time of 14.10 ahead of Jerome Coppel (+ 0.08) and Dennis Menchov (+ 0.12).
With Saxo Bank-SunGard winning two out of the three stages and taking overall victory, plus also topping both point and team classifications, Team sports director, Dan Frost, summed up everyone’s sentiments: “The victory is a relief for him and for the team. His presence alone has an outstanding effect on our younger riders…”
