Samuel Sánchez Delivers

This is great news, Samuel Sánchez takes the all-Basque Euskaltel Euskadi team to the winner's podium the best way possible, with his third stage victory.

Here you have the note published by VeloNews:

Sánchez wins, climbs podium; Menchov secures; Sastre endures
By Andrew Hood, VeloNews European correspondent
Filed: September 22, 2007

Samuel Sánchez delivered his third stage victory of this year's Vuelta a España to secure his Basque Euskaltel-Euskadi team its first-ever podium finish in a grand tour in the team's 14-year history.

Sánchez roared over Saturday's short 20km individual time trial in the suburbs north of Madrid to knock Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) off the podium and give compatriot Carlos Sastre (CSC) a good fright for the second spot on the podium.

Race leader Denis Menchov (Rabobank) didn't risk crashing after a late afternoon squall dampened some portions of the route and stopped the clock for second at 12 seconds back to secure overall victory going into Sunday's finale in Madrid.

"When I heard that I had taken four seconds out of Evans at the first time check, that only gave me more motivation to push even harder," said Sánchez, who started the day nine seconds behind the Aussie. "The goal today was to claim the podium. Winning a third stage is just a bonus."

It all came down to a matter of seconds for the final podium spots.

Sánchez took 19 seconds out of Evans to relegate the Aussie to fourth place by 10 seconds.

A runner-up at the 2007 Tour de France, Evans was poised to become the first rider since 2002 to finish on the podium in two grand tours in one season, but he faltered over the past few days under relentless attacks from both Sastre's Team CSC and Sánchez's Euskaltel-Euskadi.

Evans was just four seconds slower than Sánchez at 7.3km but lost grip on third when he ceded 13 seconds by 15km on the undulating course with a series of rollers and false flats. Sánchez, smelling blood of delivering the stage win-podium double, flew over the final technical sections of the course and Evans stopped the clock in sixth at 19 seconds slower.

"It's a little bit disappointing, that's true. I felt good in the time trial and I honestly don't know where I lost the time. It's the fatigue of the season catching up with me," Evans said. "When you're so close to winning the Tour and so close to finishing on the podium at the Vuelta, of course I'm disappointed. I've been at the top for a long time in this season and I didn't see a lot of those guys (Sánchez or Sastre) ahead of me at Paris-Nice or the Tour."

Sastre, 32, finally ended his bad luck run of fourth place finishes by holding off both Sánchez and Evans in the time trial to hang on to second.

Continues...

Overall
1. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, 78:21:40
2. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 3:31
3. Samuel Sánchez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 3:46
4. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, 3:56
5. Ezequiel Mosquera (Sp), Karpin Galicia, 6:34
6. Vladimir Efimkin (Rus), Caisse d'Epargne, 7:07
7. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d'Epargne, 8:09
8. Igor Antón (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 8:44
9. Manuel Beltrán (Sp), Liquigas, 9:38
10. Carlos Barredo (Sp), Quick Step-Innergetic, 10:12

Hopefully Sánchez will be taken into account for the strategy for next year's Tour de France so Euskaltel Euskadi can improve what was done a couple of years ago by Iban Mayo and Haimar Zubeldia.

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