Farrar shows his form with Vuelta sprint win

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Tyler Farrar was extremely happy to have won the final stage of the Vuelta in Madrid and come out of the Spanish stage race in form as he turns his attention to the world championships in Australia.

Farrar lost his usual lead out man Julian Dean early in the race but never lost hope of winning the final sprint of the race.

“This is amazing. To win two stages at the Vuelta is more than I hoped. It’s great. I already won two stages at the Giro and now I do the same at the Vuelta,” he said.

“My whole team did a great work. Christian (Vande Velde) and Tom Peterson worked hard to bring the break back but the guy who did an incredible job is Matt Wilson. He’s been there for me all day. When Julian Dean crashed before stage 1, I feared that I could suffer a lack of help but not at all. Matt has been fantastic. Without Julian, I had to ride the final kilometre by myself but I had a clean run today.”

Farrar failed to take the green jersey from Mark Cavendish, with the HTC-Columbia rider winning the points competition by seven points. However he is now more confident of beating Cavendish in sprints and is looking forward to the world championships. Farrar is expected to be one of the team leaders in the USA squad in Melbourne.

“Even after Mark Cavendish’s two stage wins, I’ve kept confidence in my capacities of beating him by the end of the Vuelta. That’s part of sprinting, to always believe in yourself,” Farrar said.

“There was only one possibility left for winning. I’m so happy to win such a prestigious stage in Madrid. Today on the circuit, there were three U-turns that made it hard to control because it was easy for everyone to come on the inside. I stayed healthy and I came through all three weeks of the Vuelta very strong, so I’m looking forward to the World’s.”