Marathon man Martinez
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ByEurosport
Published 06/09/2006 at 15:49 GMT
Egoi Martinez ran at the front all day and broke clear 14km from home to take a deserved Vuelta stage 11 win for Discovery Channel on Wednesday. The Spaniard led in compatriot Inigo Landaluze of Euskatel while Volodymir Gustov took third for CSC.
CYCLING 2006 Discovery Channel Egoi Martinez
Image credit: EFE
There was little movement in the general classification with Alejandro Valverde holding onto his overall race lead, while blue jersey leader Thor Hushovd finished fifth to claim another 12 points.
The 166km trek from Torrelavega to Burgos took on a strange complexion, with two category-one climbs within the first two hours, followed by a long, gentle descent to the finish.
Consequently the peloton were happy to sit back and enjoy a relatively sedate journey, leaving Martinez to lead a breakaway group that took over 15 minutes out of the bulk of the field.
Norway's Hushovd was the highest-profile member of the breakaway group and went first over the category-one climb up to Puento de la Bragula, also taking the second intermediate sprint to add to his points tally.
Further back, several attempts from Carlos Sastre and Alexander Vinokourov to steal a march on gold jersey Alejandro Valverde were quickly shot down by Oscar Pereiro and the rest of the Caisse d'Epargne team.
After hauling himself over the Puerto de Carrales, Martinez was quickest over the flat, straight 83km run into Burgos that was enlivened only by a couple of spectacular downpours.
But there was no raining on the Spanish parade as Martinez secured a home victory to savour, while Valverde stays in gold and remains favourite to win the race.
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