Jasper Stuyven (Trek Factory Racing) came out on top in a dramatic sprint on stage 8 of the Vuelta a Espana, winning ahead of Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural) and Kevin Reza (FDJ.com).
“I always aim high and sometimes aiming high can give you only disappointment," Stuyven said. "After having so much bad luck this year it is finally nice to be able to do something with the good legs and it’s really nice to take the first victory in a WorldTour race. I am really, really happy. The team did well to pull everything back and even after the crash I kept fighting, kept fighting...Yeah. It pays off.”
Stuyven suffered to get over the pair of climbs that jettisoned a number of sprinters in the final 50km, and avoided a big crash leading to the climbs.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We knew it was going to be really hard today,” Stuyven said. “We were well-placed together with the team and then there was the big crash and we had a few of us go down. I was also in the crash, and I hit my wrists pretty bad, they were hurting a lot, but I said to the guys I am gonna try.
“I suffered a lot the first time up the climb, and I was afraid that I would not make it a second time, but Dirk [Demol] was there to say to keep fighting, keep fighting. And I was in a good position at the bottom so I could drift a little bit back on the climb; I think I was one of the last guys to make it over with the front group."
The stage, which looked fairly docile on paper, came to life after a huge crash that saw Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing), Dan Martin (Cannondale Garmin) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) all forced out through injury. Esteban Chaves was caught up by the fall but survived the mayhem and the finishing two climbs to retain his overall race lead.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://ift.tt/1O0zxtC
No comments:
Post a Comment