Rodríguez wins Vuelta a Burgos

Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) ensured overall success at the Vuelta a Burgos with a controlled ride on the tough uphill finish to Areniscas de los Pinares.

Talented young Basque rider Mikel Landa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) stormed to stage victory -the first of his career and in his debut season-  after surviving the process of elimination on the climb to the finish. He was with Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) at the start of the final 300 metres but then surged clear to win alone. Cobo hung on for second place, three seconds back.

Rodriguez finished third at 12 seconds, celebrating his overall victory with a smile and a wave of the arm. Teammate and stage four winner Dani Moreno (Katusha) finished second overall at 36 seconds. Cobo was third at 45 seconds.

"Today’s stage was particularly hard. The Euskaltel team imposed an incredible pace and got a well-deserved win. Mikel Landa is a first year pro but proved he is a very talented rider,” Rodriguez said in a statement from the Katusha team.

“Luckily, once again I could take advantage on my teammates incredible work. We're an extraordinary group, in which everybody is happy to sacrifice himself for his teammate. This success has to be equally shared with all my teammates. Without them it would have been impossible to reach such a good result. Now we're ready to enjoy the next days before the start of the Vuelta.”

Euskaltel-Euskadi goes for broke

2010 Vuelta a Burgos champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) started the stage in fourth overall, 21 seconds down on Rodríguez, and strove to rip the race apart on the mountainous parcours to claim the final leader's jersey. Sanchez and three teammates led an elite selection of 10 riders across the penultimate climb and after the group swelled on the lengthy descent, once again the orange-clad Basque squad turned the screws on the taxing climb to the finish.

At five kilometres to go only six riders remained in the lead group: Landa, Sanchez, Rodríguez, Moreno, Cobo and Fabrice Jeandesboz (Saur-Sojasun). Landa knocked out a steady tempo with Sanchez on his wheel while the Katusha duo looked extremely comfortable on Sanchez's wheel.

Sanchez had to drop Rodríguez and put 21 seconds into the Katusha rider in order to win overall, but he must have sensed that he didn't have the strength and opted to turn Landa loose instead. With two kilometres to the summit the group exploded as Landa put in a huge attack. Sanchez was immediately dropped while Rodríguez, Moreno, Cobo and Jeandesboz rode together in pursuit of the young Basque rider.

Inside of the final kilometre Rodríguez and Cobo separated themselves from Moreno and Jeandesboz and with 500 metres remaining they made contact with Landa. A moment of cat-and-mouse tactics ensued before Cobo pressed the pace with Landa closely marking the Geox-TMC rider. As Cobo ramped up the tempo Rodríguez was gapped slightly, leaving the stage honours for Cobo and Landa to decide.

At 300 metres to go Landa proved he had plenty left in the tank as he put in one last massive surge. Cobo had no answer as Landa powered to his first victory as a professional and earned the final mountains classification jersey to boot.