Bicycle .net :: Arrieta Assumes Control of the Tour of Murcia As Contador Eyes Lead

Arrieta Assumes Control of the Tour of Murcia As Contador Eyes Lead

By editor on March 5th, 2008

MADRID, March 5, 2008 (AFP) – Spanish rider Aitor Perez Arrieta took the overall lead in the Tour of Murcia on Wednesday following the 152.5 kilometres second stage which was won by compatriot Jose Rubiera.

Arrieta takes over from Australian cyclist Graeme Brown, who won the first stage, but he will be anxiously looking over his shoulder as Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is in fourth overall while last year’s winner of this race Alejandro Valverde is fifth, both of them just six seconds in arrears.

Contador is looking for a morale-boosting win after his Astana team were controversially barred from competing in this year’s Tour de France, even, though, the team management and riders are radically different to the one that was ordered out of the race last year after Alexandre Vinokourov was found guilty of blood doping.

Tour organisers said they had decided to prevent Astana from competing in any of their races because of “the damage caused by this team to the Tour de France and cycling in general, as much in 2006 as 2007″.

The Luxembourg-registered Kazakh team were forced to withdraw from the Tour de France and were snubbed by the Spanish Vuelta last September after a string of doping scandals.

The team’s former leader Vinokourov was fired after testing positive for a blood transfusion during the Tour, while riders Andrej Kashechkin and Matthias Kessler also failed doping tests.

Since their drug-tainted 2007 season, Astana have undergone a makeover, and promised to clean up their act.

A new team of riders, including Contador and Levi Leipheimer, have come on board along with their manager, Johan Bruyneel, from the now defunct Discovery Channel team.

The sport’s governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) have said they will do all they can to get them reinstated into the Tour de France, but it is unlikely they will succeed given the glacial relations between UCI and the race organizers.

Stage:

1. Jose Luis Rubiera (ESP) Astana 4hr 18min 14sec,

2. Aitor Perez Arrieta (ESP) same time,

3. Vasil Kiryenka (BLR) at 2sec,

4. Alejandro Valverde (ESP) 6sec,

5. Stefano Garzelli (ITA) s.t.

Selected

7. Alberto Contador (ESP) same time

Overall:

1. Aitor Perez Arrieta (ESP) Extremadura 9hr 18min 25sec,

2. Jose Luis Rubiera (ESP) same time,

3. Vasil Kiryenka (BLR) at 2sec,