Cervélo TestTeam’s Theo Bos (NED) sprinted to victory today in the first stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León in Burgos, Spain. Delivering on a well-executed leadout by his teammates Bos took his third victory of the season. Graeme Brown (AUS-Rabobank) finished second and Pablo Urtasun (ESP-Euskaltel-Euskadi) third. Because of his stage victory, Bos also claims the first leader’s jersey of the race, the first general classification lead to be held by Cervélo this year.

“It was a successful day for the team. The whole team did a really good job and every rider gave his best to help Theo,” said Alex Sans Vega. “We knew the day would not be easy because of the wind and because we changed the action many times during the stage. That made the race difficult to control. Because we were one of the favourite teams today with Theo in the roster, most of the teams put the responsibility on us. But we didn’t care we took those responsibilities in the race.

There was a breakaway of three riders at the start. Most of the time it was Astana who was controlling this breakaway. They never let them take more than two minutes and forty-five seconds. Then Caisse d’Epargne tried to split the peloton because we had the crosswinds and the three riders from the break, went back in the peloton. Right after that, two more riders from the peloton tried to attack and went ahead and had a maximum of three minutes. But then forty-five kilometres from the finish we started to work in the front of the peloton to chase the riders in the break and to support Theo. So we chased and supported Theo until the last metres of the stage where he could show his big potential in the sprints. He won the stage and it was nice to achieve one more win for the team.”

“We decided today that we would work for me in the sprint. The plan was that we rode the last 25 kilometres full gas to hold everything together,” said Theo Bos, after the race. “Actually I didn’t feel super well today, as I was pretty tired from Paris Roubaix last weekend. But when the final started I came into a good position at the front, then my teammates brought me in the last kilometre to the front position but I didn’t want to come early. I waited until I saw the sprinters coming up then I started my sprint as well. Brown who was in my wheel was not able to pass me and came second. Tomorrow is another change, probably it will be a sprint as well, we will again give our best. Hopefully we can do it again, why not?”

Stage 1: Burgos 157.7km

1 Theo Bos (NED) Cervélo TestTeam
2 Graeme Brown (AUS) Rabobank
3 Pablo Urtasun (ESP) Euskaltel-Euskadi

File Photo by: CorVos Pro