MILRAM newcomer second overall after stage win

Dortmund, 5. March 2010. MILRAM newcomer Luke Roberts won the Queen stage of the Vuelta a Murcia (March 3-7 / UCI 2.1). The Australian won the sprint of a large lead group after a challenging 166.5 kilometers from Los Torres de Cotillas to Alhama de Murcia ahead of Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoliel) and Josep Jufre (Astana). Thanks to his stage win, Luke Roberts climbed up to second place in the overall rankigns behind leader Josep Jufre. MILRAM’s Thomas Rohregger is going into tomorrow’s individual time trial as fifth overall, after finishing 12th today.
„That was a perfect stage for us! After our good performances the last few days weren’t rewarded, that is very satisfactory for us,“ said a gratified Directeur Sportif Ralf Grabsch at the podium ceremony. „Our team brought Luke Roberts and Tommy Rohregger into the finale very well. In the end there were no sprinters there and we had the strongest rider there, in Luke.“ The former MILRAM rider also praised Dominik Nerz, the youngest rider on the German ProTour team: „Dominik is riding very strongly here this week and has integrated himself into the team very well. Today he was the most important helper on the mountains for the stage winner Roberts, falling back only shortly before the top. That was a very proud performance on this Queen stage.“
Team manager Gerry van Gerwen heard the news of the stage win on his way home from Paris, where he took part in a technical meeting for the Tour de France. „That is great news out of Spain,“ said a happy Gerry van Gerwen. „This stage win comes at just the right time. Luke Roberts didn’t feel well over the weekend, so I didn’t expect this win from him. Now we will look at the fight against the clock on Saturday. Luke is not a bad time trialist and has good chances for the podium in Murcia.“
The overall fourth of the Tour de France 2009 Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) opened the Queen stage of the Vuelta a Murcia with an attack after about 10 km. Nine more riders followed him, but were caught a short time later by a Team RadioShack led peloton. A counterattack followed immediately and four riders were able to get away quickly and build up a lead of up to over eight minutes.
The quartet started losing time as they took on the two close-together Category one climbs. Before the top of the last mountain, the Alto del Collado Bermejo, the escapees were caught by a group which contained the top favorites. In the last kilometers to the top, the group split, with Dutch rider Pieter Weening (Rabobank) putting aout 15 seconds between himself and a group of four, with a group containing MILRAM’s Dominik Nerz, Thomas Rohregger, and Luke Roberts, and the other top favorites another 15 seconds back. MILRAM newcomer Dominik Nerz showed an especially strong performance and sacrificed himself for Luke Roberts. In the closing descent, the groups came together again, paving the way for the final sprint.