Andre Greipel stormed to Columbia-HTC’s second straight victory of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana and into the lead of the race’s points competition on Tuesday.  Greipel was the fastest of a small group of riders who fought it out for the win after avoiding a big crash in the stage’s final kilometres.  


“First of all,  I hope nobody is hurt and that everybody can use the rest day [on Wednesday] to recover,” Greipel said afterwards.  “Fortunately I was in the right position.  My teammates got me up there and I could go for the win.  I want to dedicate this win to my wife Tina, it’s her birthday today and I was really motivated. This is a present for her.”


Now in the lead of the points jersey, Greipel says he will be taking the defense of his lead on the day-by-day.
“My biggest objective was to win a stage here, but there’s two or three more sprints stages where I think I could do something.”

Greipel’s victory is his sixteenth of the season, a personal record for the German who tallied 15 wins for the team in 2008.  “When you have the support of teammates like on Team Columbia-HTC, it motivates you, and it makes it possible to go for so many wins.”



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